M-K Ultra
by AkeenCarter
Summary: Itsuka Kendou was a smart girl. But if there was one thing that she didn't understand, it had to be a certain green haired boy from Class 1-A. To her, he was a complete mystery. One that she was definitely going to solve. But what she finds out about the boy is certainly not what she expected. (M-Rating for dark themes.) (I do not own BNHA.)
1. Entrance Exam

If you had told Izuku Midoriya two years ago that he would receive the quirk of Japan's number one hero, he would've look at you like you were insane. Hell, there were still times in his young life where he believed that all of this was just some crazy dream and he would suddenly wake up in his bed and return to his previously mediocre and quirkless existence. As he looked at the two men across the table from him he couldn't help but once again feel grateful at the opportunity that he was given. Not only was he given a powerful quirk that would allow him to finally achieve his dream of being a hero, he was able to study and train under the man that he revered as a idol his entire life. It was times like these that made the boy appreciate how much his life had turned around up to this point.

"Well young Izuku, tomorrow is the big day." All Might spoke to his green haired apprentice.

"Y-yeah"

"I still don't understand why you're even taking this exam since your recommendations got approved. Not only is doing this a complete waste of time, but it's redundant." Gran Torino said, taking another sip of his tea.

"It's like I said before, Sorahiko-san. I don't want to compromise All Might's secret in any way. Also, actually taking the exam and passing would mean that all of this wasn't just a waste."

"In any case I'm certain that you'll do well. Who knows, maybe you'll even make a few new friends when you're taking the exam." The blonde haired man said with a laugh. Prompting the other's to follow suit.

_'Yeah...friends.'_

* * *

Itsuka Kendou typically wouldn't describe herself as nervous person. On the contrary most people would consider her as confident if not very capable. But today was different. Six months of non-stop studying and training still didn't prepare her for the sense of anxiety that fell over when the family car had finally pulled up to the campus. As she gazed upon the four skyscraper like buildings she could already feel her heart ready to jump out of her chest.

"Good luck out there sweetie, we can't wait to hear how well you did." Her mom told her from her position inside the car.

"Right, I'll call you guys as soon as I get the chance."

"Alright, we love you, bye." The woman said as she blew her a kiss before driving off into the distance.

With that Kendou quickly found herself feeling more alone than she ever had before. As she turned around to look at the crowds of people that walked passed her she couldn't shake her nerves. Apparently the rumors about there being hundreds of applicants each year were true.

_'Oh man, this place is amazing.'_ She thought to herself, once again gazing upon the building that would possibly be her future school in the coming months.

_'Alright, here goes everything.'_

* * *

**"Well, what are you waiting for? Real life doesn't have a start button!"** The voice of Present Mic boomed through the arena. Just before all of the applicants finally got with the program and began sprinting into the training grounds.

_'Okay, I just need to make sure that I hit as many of these things as possible right?'_ Kendou thought to herself while she ran along the streets of the makeshift city.

Looking around at the other applicants she realized that staying next to a large group of people probably wouldn't work in her favor. The object of this drill was to take out the battle robots that were scattered across the area in thirty minutes. The more people around her, the less chance she had of getting to claim the points for herself.

Without hesitation she hung a left on one of the nearby streets and split away from the rest of the crowd. Almost immediately after, the sounds of explosions and metallic collisions began to resonate through her ears, signaling that others were already making headway. Kendou began to wonder if she should've stayed on the main road with the rest of applicants. Suddenly out the corner of her eye, she noticed a metallic gleam in an alley about fifty meters in front of her.

Before she could even process what the object was, the green and black turtle-like robot jumped out in front of her. Kendou paused for a moment as she stared down the beast, feeling her heart rate spike before activating her quirk in her left hand and slamming it as hard as she could into the obstacle. The force being enough to completely shatter the outer shell of the robot and render it immobile.

"Okay, that one was a three-pointer right? These things don't seem that hard to take out." She thought out loud as she took a second to look over the pile of green iron.

With that, the orange haired girl continued on running down the street. She didn't have a lot of time and three points in roughly two minutes probably wasn't going to cut it. The proctors of the exam had failed to mention a minimum passing score for this portion of the test. Which would probably mean that the ones who passed were going to be plucked from amongst those who had the highest scores. For Kendou, that thought only reinforced her assumptions that the more time she spent smashing robots instead of thinking, the higher chance she had of getting into U.A..

The orange haired teen was snapped out of her thoughts just as she rounded the corner to get onto the next street. The moment she got on the other side of the building she was thrown back by a shockwave that originated from her left. She looked up from her new position on the ground to see another applicant in a blue and black bodysuit standing over the remnants of another three-pointer.

Unfortunately for the orange haired girl, in the time she took to look at the other applicant she didn't notice the two-pointer behind her preparing its artificial tail for an attack. The only thing alerting her being the distinct sound of grating metal. Kendou looked up at the mechanoid and activated her quirk in both hands to brace herself for impending blow. _'I'm toast.'_

Just before the robot was about to strike, a loud crashing sound interrupted her thoughts. It took a moment for her to regain herself before she pulled back her hands and looked in front towards the shattered remains of the robot. A quick wave of confusion washed over her just before she brought her eyes up to see a boy standing on top of the heap of metal. He wore a light green tracksuit but his most notable feature was the messy green hair on top of his head.

_'He took out that thing like it was nothing._'

"Hey, thanks for the save, I owe you one." She said to the boy in front of her. She waited a second for a response from him, but not so much as a sound came from his mouth. Instead the boy's body suddenly became surround by some sort of green electricity. Then, just like in one of those old superhero movies, the boy jumped from his position atop the scrap heap and disappeared from her sight behind one of the buildings.

_'Wow, rude much?'_ She thought to herself, still looking at the direction that the boy vanished.

Deciding to not dwell on it any further, Kendou stood back up and resumed her search for any more robots. If her math was right she still had about twenty five minutes left to tally up as many points as she could.

The next twenty minutes or so for the orange haired aspiring hero were eventful to say the least. She managed to take out a good number of robots over that time, most of them being three-pointers. But much to her dismay they only rounded to roughly twenty-five points, and that's if her math was right. The orange haired girl couldn't help but wonder if she would've been able to get more points if she didn't stop to help another applicant after he hadn't gotten his tail stuck in the folds of one of the smashed robots. Or if she hadn't taken the time to shield another girl with white hair from some falling debris.

"Oh shit, what is that thing?" A guy with black hair and a white headband shouted from across the street. Using one of his arms to point in the direction of the source of the tremor coming from that area. The entire group of applicants turned around to see a massive monstrosity of a robot heading their way, taking up the entire length of the road. The giant mecha was at least several stories tall and Kendou suddenly understood what that Present Mic guy had meant about it being an obstacle to avoid.

_'That must be one of those zero-pointers they told us about._'

"Ow!" A voice came from the direction of the hulking zero-pointer. Kendou took a moment to look but was met with the sight of a girl with brown hair. And from the looks of it her foot was trapped under a large piece of concrete. What was worse was that the zero-pointer wasn't too far away.

"Hold on!" Kendou yelled at the brown haired girl as her feet began moving towards her.

While she was running towards the brunette she took a brief look up at the robot. If she was being generous she had less than thirty seconds to help this girl out or the both of them would wind up as roadkill.

"Don't worry, I'll have you out of here in no time." She said to reassure the brunette.

"Thanks, but that thing is a-almost right on top of us."

Kendou quickly activated her quirk in both hands and began doing what she could to move the concrete slab, but to no avail. This thing was heavy, if she had to guess it was at least 135kg. When activated, her quirk allowed her hands an elevated level of strength, but she had her limits. The orange haired girl was doing everything she could to get the slab to move but nothing seemed to work.

"Come on, move dammit!" Kendou all but pleaded to the concrete mass. It was at this moment that she knew she was getting desperate. With the zero-pointer less than thirty meters away she couldn't shake the feeling that she was about to be crushed. Suddenly, right when she looked up to see the foot of the giant mecha raise of the ground, something unexpected happened.

"Smash!" A voice boomed through the sky right above them. Kendou only having a brief second to catch the sight of the same green haired boy from earlier who saved her from that robot flying through the sky. In an instant, a rush of air made contact with the head of the zero-pointer forcing it to crumple inward. The impact taking a moment to go into effect until it finally began erupting in miniature explosions. Sure enough, what was left of the zero-point robot fell back onto the street.

"Oh wow." The brown haired girl mumbled out, taking a moment to admire the display of strength that their fellow examinee had just shown.

After managing to somehow safely land on the ground, the boy seemingly took a second to just stare at the robot before the voice of Present Mic boomed through the arena once again. **"Alright boys and girls, that concludes today's festivities. If you're injured and need medical attention please standby for our staff."**

The green haired boy turned around to see the majority of the remaining participants gawking at him, some of them commenting on what they all just witnessed. Which was to be expected after a display like that.

Without so much as saying anything he made his way over to the two girls. Kendou paused for moment at the cold, almost lifeless expression he wore in his face. It was the kind of empty gaze that went right through you. If she was being honest, the look made her slightly uncomfortable. The girl was so wrapped up in her thoughts that she didn't even notice that he had already made his way up to them. Without a word the green haired mystery bent down in between the two girls and placed his hand under the concrete slab. Kendou watched as his body became engulf by the same green electricity from earlier before single handedly picking up the stone mass off of the brunette.

_'It must be some kind of strength enhancement quirk.'_

"Hey, thanks for the help." Kendou said to him with a relieved grin.

"Seriously! You just took out that zero pointer like it was nothing. If it wasn't for you the both of us would've been flattened!"

The boy didn't bother responding before turning around and making his way to the direction of the main gate. Once again, leaving without so much as a word to anyone else. Kendou would be lying if she said that this didn't slightly irritate her. Especially since this was the second time that this green haired wonderboy managed to completely forget his manners.

"Hey, the least you could do is acknowledge someone when they thank you!" She half-shouted at his retreating form.

"What's with that guy? First he saves our butts then he pretends like we don't even exist." The brunette asked.

"Who knows? Hey, how's your foot?"

"It doesn't feel like it's broken, but there's definitely some pain."

"Let me help you over to the medics."

"Thanks."

"I'm Itsuka Kendou by the way, nice to meet you."

"I'm Ochako Uraraka. Likewise." The brunette grinned.

* * *

One week. One entire week of waiting around for the results of the entrance exam and Kendou was starting to go absolutely mad. She expected that grading the scores of all of the applicants was going to take some time, but that still didn't help alleviate any of the stress that came with wondering if she got into her dream school or not. As far as the written exam was concerned she had no doubt in her mind that she did very well, her primary source of worry was the practical. If she was right her score tallied up to about twenty-five, and if the girl was being honest she was worried about whether or not that would have been enough to even pass.

As she paced around for room for what felt like the eighth time that day, she could feel herself getting more and more restless. Deciding that accidently causing a rut in her floor wasn't a good idea, the hopeful hero went downstairs to grab a quick snack and take her mind off the daunting possibility of her own future. Luckily for her, the girl only got halfway through her peanut butter and jelly sandwich before her mom practically busted through the door.

"Itsuka! Itsuka, sweetie! It's here!" The black haired woman shouted across the house.

"Wha-oh man is that-?"

"I believe so. Let's open it!"

"A-actually mom, do you mind if I go up to my room and open it up there myself?"

"Oh of course not sweetie. Take your time."

"Thanks."

With that the orange haired teen wasted no time and sprinted upstairs to her room. As she re-entered the blue and white, martial arts themed chamber she quickly sat down at her desk and took a moment to stare at the envelope. Just then, out of nowhere her heartrate jumped up and the stress of the moment finally hit her. In this envelope contained the verdict on her future. A fact that as much she hate to admit it, was the truth.

"Alright, here goes everything."

With as much bravery as she could muster, Kendou opened up the envelope and inspected it's contents. Aside from a few papers there was what appeared to be a hologram projector inside. Taking it out of the package she inspected it for a second, judging by the fact that he had never seen this style before, she deduced that it had to be newer model, which would make sense considering the budget that U.A. apparently had every year. It took her a moment before locating the power button on the bottom of the device. And with no hesitation she activated the device and watched as a projection lit up the room.

_"Greetings, Itsuka Kendou. My name is Sekijiro Kan, but you probably know me as The Blood Hero: Vlad King. I'm one of the hero course teachers here at U.A." _The white haired man on the screen spoke immediately as the device was activated. She had never heard of this guy before, but if he was a hero course teacher had to be someone important._ "I'm not one to mince words so I'll just get straight to the good part. During the written portion of the entrance exam you scored an impressive ninety-five points out of a hundred, which tied you with seven other applicants for the fifth spot. Your score would've been more than enough to land you in our general studies course, but naturally you had your eyes set on a much bigger goal. During the practical exam you scored a respectable twenty-five villain points. To be honest, this score alone wouldn't have been enough to land you a spot in U.A.'s hero course..."_

Kendou's heart almost stopped at the pro hero's words.

_"But what kind of school would we be if we only judged students based on combat power alone? Our staff reviewed your performance on tape and due to your several acts of heroism by helping out your fellow applicants along with your valiant attempt to save another student from being crushed by the zero-point robot, we have decided to award you with an additional forty 'rescue points' on top of your already existing score. This will put you at sixty-five points which overall will place you sixth for the practical exam. Congratulations and I look forward to seeing you in this upcoming school year."_

Kendou couldn't help but let out a scream once her mind had finally processed this information from the projector.

She made the cut, she actually got in. Months of training and studying had actually paid off. The orange haired girl was certain that she was almost going to faint if it wasn't for her mother bursting through the door to see what was wrong her daughter. The two women ended up cheering up and down for the better part of five minutes before the older Kendou woman ran back downstairs to get her phone with the purpose of calling her husband to tell him the good news.

After Kendou managed to calm herself down she decided to look over the rest of the paperwork that came with the envelope, which she assumed had to be important. As she read over the stack of forms she noted that she was already assigned a class and a student number, class 1-B from the looks of it. Unsurprisingly it appeared as though the white haired man from before, Vlad King, was to be her homeroom teacher. Which made sense considering that he was the one who delivered the message of her admission to her. While she looked over the rest of the paperwork she found her performance rating for the written and practical exams. From the looks of it she had mostly positive remarks on the sheet, aside from a few comments on the recklessness of running into the direction of a giant robot without any real plan or strategy. Which Kendo felt like she couldn't argue with considering it was reckless and stupid, in hindsight.

There was however, one thing that Kendou couldn't help but wonder in the back of her mind. She had a total of sixty-five points for the entrance exam after factoring in 'rescue points', which put her at sixth place. Considering how many other applicants there were in the auditorium during the written exam that would mean that the majority of them got way less than that. But that also meant that the other five students ahead of her had gotten more. It was hard for her to imagine anyone getting a ridiculously high number of points based strictly on 'villain points'. Suddenly her mind flashed back to that moment when she was about to get crushed by the zero-pointer with that Uraraka girl, and that green headed boy that completely smashed the robot with a single punch. If more students like him were at the entrance exam then she definitely couldn't count out that possibility.

"I bet that guy got in as well." She thought out loud before deciding to head downstairs, still a bit giddy from hearing the good news.

* * *

**Author's Notes: Well here it is folks, the first chapter of my new fic. If you weren't already able to tell then I switched up a few things in this fic from the cannon storyline. Most notably our favorite green haired cinnamon roll. As of right now, I plan on mostly sticking with the cannon story for the first few chapters of this fic, then after a certain point it's going to completely branch off, but a lot of key events will be kept in, so to speak. I'm going to challenge myself in this fic and try to keep everyone's personalities the same with a few exceptions to further along the story. Hopefully you guys will enjoy it. **

**1\. If you weren't already able to tell, the events that lead up to Midoriya receiving 'One for All' are quite different than what they were in the cannon. But don't worry, you guys will find out what happened in due time. I plan on giving the back story of how this came to be in fractions before a rather large 'revelation' so to speak. I hope you guys are ready for that. **

**2\. I had a hard time coming up with the practical exam portion of this chapter since I had to pretty much make it up from scratch. I hope I did a decent enough job.**

**3\. The first few chapters are going to blow by a bit in terms of the timeline, but after I'm done with the sports festival it will even out. **

**4\. This story is going to go back and forth between Kendou and Midoriya's perspectives quite a bit, but the majority of it will be from Kendou's point view. Like I said, I'm trying to challenge myself with this one. **

**5\. I'm also strongly considering switching up the 'Dekusquad' for this fic. I have a few ideas that I'm juggling, but I'm just going to put it to a vote to see what you guys are feeling.**

**-Option A: Keep it as Iida, Uraraka and Todoroki.**

**-Option B: Jiro, Todoroki and Tokoyami**

**-Option C: Uraraka, Yaoyorozu and Kaminari**

**-Option D: Jiro, Iida and Hagakure.**

**Either vote in the reviews or PM me. I won't announce the winner though, so you'll just have to see how the story plays out.**

**Anyways, thank you all for reading and don't be afraid to drop a review.**


	2. The Boy With The Green Hair

Life at U.A. really was all that it was cracked up to be, Kendou thought as she made her way through the hallway en route to her class. Despite only being in the second week of the new school year, it was pretty apparent as to why U.A. was considered the top hero school in Japan by so many. Classes like English, math and history were about as difficult as they would be in any high school. Which didn't bother Kendou that much considering that she never had an issue maintaining anything lower than a 'B' her entire life. The real challenge came in the form of the infamous hero course, that U.A. was most known for. To say that the first year students hit the ground running would be an understatement. Not only was the class longer, they were continuously given piles of hero-related information every day and for the last few days she felt like her hands were about to fall off from having to take so many notes. The big kicker however, were the practical training sessions that the students had already managed to take part in. The first session went pretty well, in Kendou's opinion. Her and her classmate Setsuna Tokage managed to defeat their opponents with relative ease inside of the makeshift city that is more commonly known as "Training Ground Beta". But the obstacle course definitely proved to be a challenged for her and many others.

Luckily for the wannabe hero, her classmates were all pretty easy to get along with. Sure there were a few over-the-top personalities, most notably a certain blonde haired student by the name of Neito Monama. But overall everyone seemed to be really hardworking and enjoyable to spend the day with. She had even managed to make a few new friends, mainly a green haired girl by the name of Setsuna Tokage and boy with long blonde eyelashes that went by Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu. They both had their quirks, but they were pretty good people from what she had been able to tell so far.

"Yo, did you guys hear about what happened to Class 1-A a couple of days ago?" Kosei Tsuburaba asked his classmates as he walked into the door, only seconds behind the orange haired girl.

"Yeah, I saw it on the news with my folks. Pretty wild huh?" Juzo Honenuki responded.

"Yeah, must've been real scary. I mean an actual villain attack. Like, what the hell?"

"For real."

Kendou couldn't help but replay what she head heard on the news two days prior after arriving home from class inside her head. The students of class 1-A, the other first year hero class, had went down to a training area on the other side of campus and apparently had been ambushed by a horde of villains when they had arrived. The entire class knew something was up when Present Mic abruptly excused himself from his English lesson. But everyone only found out later that night. Kendou would be lying if she said that she didn't feel a little concerned for her fellow heroes-in-training. Sure she had only met two of the 1-A students since starting at U.A., but that didn't mean she didn't feel for them.

"Did you hear what that Midoriya dude did? Apparently he saved like five people during the attack." Yosetsu Awase stated as he joined in on the conversation between he two other boys.

"Midoriya, who's that?"

"You know, the green haired guy with the freckles. The one with the plain face."

_'Green hair?'_ Kendou thought as her ears perked back up to her classmate's conversation.

"Oh you mean that dude who got first place on the entrance exam? I heard he scored like 110 points." Kosei Tsuburaba plainly stated as he sat down at his desk.

"What?!" A few of the surrounding students half-shouted in surprise at this new tidbit of information. Officially, the results of who placed where in the entrance exam were never disclosed, but it only took the first day of class introductions for pretty much everyone to divulge where they stood. Surprisingly, none of the students who placed in the top four were present in the class from the information that Kendou received from her peers. Everyone assumed that they were all in 1-A.

"You can't be serious. 110 Points?"

"Yeah, one of the guys in 1-A told me about it. I guess that guy is the real deal huh?"

"I hear he's a total loner though. Shame, he might be a pretty cool dude."

_'No way. It has to be the same guy.'_ Kendou thought just before the rumblings erupted from her classmates. Thankfully their homeroom teacher, the blood hero Vlad King managed to walk into class just in time before things got too rowdy.

"Alright boys and girls, listen up!" The white haired hero's voice boomed through the classroom as he begun his lecture for the day.

* * *

As much as Kendou appreciated holding the title of "Class Rep", she was not a fan of how much of her free time the new job seemed to take up. It wasn't like she even wanted the position in the first place. When it came time for Class 1-B to decide who would take on the roll, pretty much everyone with the exception of Monama, had volunteered her for it. Although at the time she was grateful for the opportunity, less than a week at her new post quickly sucked out all of her motivation.

The class representative meetings were dull, to say the least. The majority of the time was spent either planning school functions months away from now, or listening to the blue haired girl from 3-A ramble on about whatever thought just so happened to pop into her head at the moment. It wasn't all bad though, at least the other first year from class 1-A, Tenya Iida, seemed to be taking everything in stride and managed to keep the meetings grounded and on schedule. For the most part.

But for Kendou, all of this still didn't make up for the fact that the class rep meetings significantly cut into her dojo time every week. Seeing as every Tuesday and Thursday were now dedicated to the after school meet ups, she only had Wednesdays and Saturdays to fully commit herself to the dojo that she had been attending since she was ten.

Luckily for the orange haired girl, one of the added benefits of being a student at U.A. meant that they were able to use the school's facilities even after classes were over. Kendou had a feeling that the meeting today was going to be particularly long due to the school's preparation for the upcoming "Sports Festival", so she had the foresight to reserve one of the training rooms earlier in the week. As she walked out of the locker room in search of her room she couldn't help but feel a bit excited. This was going to be her first time using one of the rooms and from what her neighbor Tamaki Amajiki had told her about them, they were pretty state of the art. They even had practice dummies and wing chun mannequins in every room.

It didn't take long for the heroine in training to locate her assigned space at the end of the hallway. She took a moment to look at the placard at the top of the entrance to confirm that this was in fact her room. _'Training Room Epsilon'_, the blue and red piece of metal read.

The moment Kendou walked up to the door of her designated training room, she could hear a rustling noise coming from the inside. For a brief second she double checked her phone to make sure that the time was correct, which it was. She definitely reserved the room from five o'clock to six o'clock, but from the sound of it there was at least one other person currently inside. The orange haired girl waited a moment before she finally decided to open the door and unsurprisingly, she was met with the sight of another student going to work on one of the training mannequins that was housed inside of the room. But what caught her off guard was who exactly the student was.

Wild green hair, matching eyes, slightly taller than her with a set of freckles on both cheeks. Yeah, there was no mistaking it, this definitely was the same guy from the entrance exam. She had wondered if earlier during class that Tsuburaba was talking about the same person that she had expected, but seeing him right in front of her essentially confirmed it.

She watched for about a minute as the boy struck the mannequin with a series of kicks and knees to the head and couldn't help but be bit impressed. Even though his overall form was a bit unsteady from what she could tell, his strikes were solid and well placed. Not to mention he was using a considerable amount of power with every hit. But that was to be expected considering what she had seen him do against that zero-point robot. For Kendou it was easy to tell that the boy was proficient in at least some type of martial art, what that was though exactly she couldn't put her finger on it. But she figured it had to be a leg-based fighting style considering he had not used his arms a single time from the moment she had walked in. Another thing that she was able to see while she watched him work the mannequin were the series of rather large scars along his right arm. _'Maybe that has something with it?'_ She thought to herself.

"Those are some pretty good moves you got there." Kendou said, finally deciding to speak up from her position next to the double doors. Only after realizing that she had spent the last minute or so watching her fellow first year student.

The green haired boy immediately paused his body from delivering another kick and turned around. When the two students briefly locked eyes, Kendou was once again met with the same cold glance that she had experienced the first time the two met.

"S-sorry. I must've lost track of time. I didn't know if anyone else had the room booked." The 1-A student said as he wiped the sweat from his brow.

"Don't worry about it. No harm done."

"I'll just get out of your hair." He replied, picking up his uniform jacket off of the ground and making his way over to the door.

"Hey wait a second." She said to him just as he made his approach. "You're in 1-A, Midoriya right?"

"Uh...y-yeah."

"I'm Kendou, class 1-B. I heard about what happened the other day. It must have been scary having to deal with those villains."

"Yeah, I guess it was."

"I also heard that you saved a few of your classmates."

"Yeah, I guess I did." He dryly responded.

The two stood in awkward silence for a moment. The orange haired girl didn't really know what to expect out of this exchange, but it was definitely more than the shorthand answers that she was getting from this guy. What was even more awkward was Kendou just noticed that during that entire exchange, the green haired boy hadn't even bothered to look at her the whole time.

"Well, I guess I'd better get going. I apologize for taking up your time Kendou-san. Have a nice day." He politely bowed before continuing his exit.

"Hey, hold on."

She once again called out to the boy. Causing him to turn around with a half-curious half-expecting look.

"You're the one who saved me and Uraraka-san during the entrance exam. Thanks for that."

"That's just what heroes are supposed to do. There's no real reason to thank me."

"Maybe, but I'd like to let you know that I appreciated it."

Without so much as a word, Midoriya proceeded to walk out of the training room and take his leave. Kendou would be lying if she said that she didn't feel the least bit irritated at the fact that the boy didn't even seem to acknowledge her gratitude before walking off. She briefly wondered why she even bothered to start up a conversation with him in the first place. To be honest, even though he saved her and that brunette girl during the entrance exam, the boy came off as pretty rude. Not in a malicious way, more like "indifferent" if she had to put a word to it.

_'Man, what is with this guy?'_

She wondered as she removed her uniform jacket and shoes to get ready for her workout. At least now she had a little extra motivation to show this training who's boss.

* * *

_"Izuku sweetie, I just heard the news! I'm so proud that my baby got into U.A., through recommendations no less." _

_"Thanks mom. I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner, but I didn't want to jinx anything. Especially if they didn't get approved."_

_"I understand dear, just try to keep me in the loop about these things from now on. Please?"_

_"Y-yeah."_

_"Izuku...I know this is still a still a sore topic for you, but can you at least try and make some friends this year?"_

_A not so subtle sigh escaped the boy's mouth. In all honesty, he was hoping to avoid having this conversation with her again. "Mom, look I-"_

_"I know, I know. But U.A. is a fresh start. I know you've been busy training with Toshinori-kun and Sorahiko-san to get ready for school, but you need to spend time around children your age for once. Can you at least give it a try, for me?"_

_"Okay mom...I'll try."_

* * *

**Author's Notes: Alright chapter two is in the books. And we finally have our first real interaction between our two main characters, even though it was rather quick. We also have our first "Flashback" of the story. I'm on the fence about if I wan to include one every chapter, but we'll se where the wind takes me. **

**I decided to completely skip over the USJ incident since Class 1-B wasn't even present for the entire affair. Like I said before, I'm going to jump around events for the first few chapters of the story. But next chapter we'll start the always entertaining Sports Festival Arc. I have a few ideas cooked up about it so I hope you guys enjoy. **


	3. Sports Festival: Part 1

It was a relief for not only Kendou, but all of class 1-B when Vlad King had announced that the school would be continuing on with the Sports Festival despite the incident that happened at the USJ. In the aftermath, there had been a rumor floating around that the school was going to postpone the annual event for security reasons. There was even a mention of this possibility at the Class Rep meeting at the start of the week. But luckily for the orange haired teen and her classmates, the Sports Festival would still go on.

During homeroom that morning, Kendou learned why the Sports Festival was so important for U.A. students. On the surface it just seemed like another form of entertainment and publicity for the school. But from the way that Vlad King had explained it to the young wannabe heros, it was mainly a way for them to put their names out there and get noticed by pros for the possibility of internships later in the year. The better you did, the more offers you would get. Which was more than enough motivation for her to up her training regimen. After all, the Sports Festival was only two weeks away. She couldn't help but wonder what exactly the students would have to do once the party got started.

She watched the event almost every year with her parents, and almost every year the events were completely random, minus the one-on-one tournament that always wrapped things up. Getting a chance to prove herself to not only the pro heroes, but her classmates as well was an opportunity that she didn't want to miss out on.

As Kendou and Tokage made their way through the hallway, they noticed a large crowd of students gathering around the Class 1-A entrance. Before the two of them could ask someone what was going on, Tokage spotted a familiar head of silver hair trying to muscle his way through the crowd of onlookers.

"Tetsutetsu, what's going on?" The green haired girl asked her classmate.

"A ton of people are scouting out the hero course students. I kinda wanted to see what all the hype for the 1-A guys was about so I joined in."

"Really?" Kendou asked with a deadpanned expression.

"Yeah, ever since the USJ incident those guys have been getting all of the buzz. Everyone wants to know what's up with the class that fought off actual villains."

Before Kendou had a chance to tell her friend how utterly ridiculous he sounded, the group's attention was alerted to a rather loud and overbearing voice coming from the classroom.

"...least now you know what a future pro looks like. So move it extras!" A boy with ash blonde hair and red eyes all but growled at the group of students closest to the door.

"You can't go around calling people extras just because you don't know who they are!" Tenya Iida scolded the boy as he waved his hands in a fashion that Kendou learned was pretty much natural for the indigo haired student.

"What a snob. Just because he fought some low-level baddies he thinks he's hot stuff." Tokage said as they watched the blonde boy walk off through the crowd.

"Yeah, you got that right." Kendou agreed with a quick chuckle.

Just then, right as some purple haired student with bags under his eyes got done making some "declaration of war" to rest of the 1-A students, a familiar face walked out of the classroom. The green haired boy didn't bother looking at anyone as he politely excused himself through the crowd in a low voice. Aside from a few quick comments and questions directed at him, he didn't bother saying anything to anyone. He jut kept his head down and as best he could.

"That's him right, Midoriya?" Tokage asked her two friends.

"Yeah."

"Hmm, I feel like I've seen him somewhere before. But damn, he's actually kinda cute. Don't you think?" The 'lizard tail splitter' quirk user joked with a light elbow to her friend's left arm.

"Whatever, let's just get going." Kendou said with an annoyed deadpan expression.

With that, the 1-B trio set off to the cafeteria for lunch. Mainly to go over what they planned to do for Sports Festival.

* * *

"So young Izuku, have you worked out what you're going to do for the upcoming Sports Festival?" All-Might asked his successor as he passed him a cup of fresh tea.

"To be honest Toshinori-san, there's not really much I can do in terms of preparation. Minus the one-on-one tournament, the events every year are random. I'll pretty much just have to wing it."

"That's a fair point." The blonde haired man said before sipping his tea. "But, you and your class have two weeks to get some extra training in so I'm sure you'll think of something. Have you made any progress with 'One for All' that you've noticed?"

The quirk inheritor shook his head. "Honestly, no. My _'full-cowling'_ is still capped off at eighteen percent, and I can still only handle twenty-five percent with a single _'smash'_ before it causes any pain. I don't really think that I'll be able to do much better than that in two weeks time."

"In any case, that will still be more than enough to make an impression on those watching the festival. You remember what I told you, right?"

"Yeah...the Sports Festival is my chance to make a good first impression and get noticed by the pros."

"Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that you need to win the whole thing. Especially since I know you like to try and stay out of the spotlight as much as you can, so you just need to show off your skillset a bit. Show people that you're more than just a one trick pony."

"I'll try my best."

"That's what I like to hear! Now, you should probably head back to class seeing as lunch is almost over. You may already be fluent in English but that doesn't mean you get to show up late for Present Mic's lesson."

"Yes sir, I'll see you later today."

* * *

After a long two weeks of school and extra training, the day of Sports Festival had finally arrived for the first year students of U.A.. Because she had no idea what to really expect as far as the other events went, Kendou decided that she would primarily focus on her karate and hand-to-and skills for the majority of her time. Unfortunately when it came to her quirk, that was really all she could do aside from trying exercises to improve the general strength of her hands. Despite all of this, Kendou still felt fairly confident in herself.

While the students of class 1-B sat in their assigned waiting room, the nervous tension that surrounded the would be heroes was almost palpable. Aside from a conversation between Kaibara and Tsuburaba in the back corner of the room, the place was completely quiet. Kendou looked over her classmates one more time, watching the groups various attempts to keep the pressure away. She couldn't really blame them though. This event was important for their development as future heroes, performing well and standing out was a daunting task.

**"All students please report to the field."** The voice of the announcer commanded them through the speakers. Forcing the students to begin filing out of the waiting room.

Soon enough the students were ushered out of the northernmost gate of the stadium floor and were met with the sight of the cheering crowd. Kendou was more than a bit surprised that the stadium looked almost completely packed. But considering how popular the U.A. Sports Festivals were, it made sense. That and the second and third year events were slotted to start later in the day so all the attention was directed to their own.

Within minutes the freshmen were crowded around the event stage, waiting for the festivities to begin. While the students and crowd listened to Midnight's introduction, the nervous tension that surrounded them seemed to be magnified. Kendou took a moment to look around the group of students, only to be met with a slurry of dissenting looks from various onlookers. It didn't take long for her to see that almost every student in her class was receiving similar looks._ 'I guess Awase-san was right, it looks like everyone is gunning for the hero course students._'

"Now to give the student pledge. Katsuki Bakugou, please come up to the stage." The somewhat inappropriately dressed hero announced.

"Wait...what?" A boy with spiky red hair said at this announcement.

"Yeah, what gives? Isn't it usually the student who got the highest score on the entrance exam the one who gives the opening speech?" Another boy with yellow and black hair said in response.

"Yeah, Midoriya-san you should be the one up there." A girl with green hair and wide eyes stated to the boy on her right.

"That reminds me. Is it true that you got 110 points on the entrance exam?!" Tetsutetsu shouted to the green haired teen. Causing the surrounding students to turn their attention to him.

To the annoyance of the steel quirk user, he didn't get a response. Not even so much as an act of acknowledgement from the other student. Kendou couldn't help but be a bit miffed by this as well. It wasn't the first time that she had seen the boy just flat out ignore someone, hell she had even been on the receiving end of that a couple of times herself. Based on the one real interaction that two had she just assumed that he might just be kind of shy, but now she was pretty sure that he was just rude.

"I just wanna say...I'm gonna win." The blonde haired boy said with a level of confidence and nonchalance that pretty much angered everyone of the students present on the field. He seemingly didn't care though as he responded to their shouting with a rude gesture and declaring that everyone there were nothing more than, "Stepping stones on my path to the top." After another snide remark about beating everyone he walked down the steps back onto the field. A look of determination on his face.

"What an ass." Tokage said with a click of the teeth.

"Well, at least he's confident." Kendou sarcastically shrugged.

* * *

After another brief speech from Midnight, the first event was announced. That event being an obstacle course back to the main entrance of the stadium. The rules were simple enough, just be one of the first forty-four students to make it across the finish line. Quirk usage was also allowed as long as you didn't harm another student. This was welcome news for the hero course students, seeing as they were the only ones in their year that actually had the opportunity to train their quirks, even if only for a shirt while.

The moment the horn sounded to begin, the entirety of the tunnel was met with a strong gust of wind followed by a cold chill coupled with a series of loud bangs. After taking a moment to regain her now dulled senses, Kendou looked ahead of herself to see that three students were already a considerable distance away from the rest of the pack. That Bakugou kid was propelling himself through the air with what looked liked miniature explosions coming from his hands. Shouto Todoroki, the son of the number two hero Endeavor, was skating across the ground as a sheet of ice formed around him. The other student was no surprise to her as she noticed the familiar sight of green electricity leading the group in the distance. _'I guess those three are the ones to watch out for.'_ She thought as she expanded her hands to push through the crowd of people currently suffocating her.

Fortunately it didn't take long for her and a couple other students from her class to make their way through the crowd of students and onto the field.

"Man, those 1-A guys have some flashy quirks." Tetsutetsu said with an impressed scowl.

"Yeah, let's get going. We're all still sticking with Monanma's plan to hang back a bit right?" Tokage replied to her classmate.

"Yeah, no use in painting targets on our backs for no reason." The ginger teen confirmed.

With that Kendou, Tokage and Tetsutetsu all began running down the path. The orange haired girl took a moment to look behind her to check out the situation. She could see that there was still a large crowd of students not too far behind them. She could also see a few of her classmates towards the front of the pack. Naturally Tsunotori was gaining some ground pretty fast, but Shishida wasn't too far behind her.

The trio continued on for another few minutes before a random tremor shook the ground below them. The entirety of the student body paused at this development only to be met with the sight of a platoon of familiar look automatons rapidly approaching them. Immediately Kendou recognized them as the zero point robots from the entrance exam. One of them was bad enough, but from what she immediately identify there were at least fifteen of them heading their way.

A few nervous shouts and groans from those around her quickly snapped the orange haired teen out of her shock. Taking a moment to get her wits about her, Kendou turned to her classmates. Normally these types of obstacles would be the kind to avoid. But given the quirks of her classmates, she knew they could handle these hunks of metal.

"Team Up?" Kendou asked the two classmates at her sides with a confident smirk.

"Hell yeah!" Tetsutetsu shouted as he activated his quirk.

"I heard about these things from the others. They don't look so tough to me." The green haired girl smirked.

Without another word, the hero wannabees sprung into action. Tetsutetsu quickly took point and lead the charge with Tokage and Kendou at his back. As soon as they came up to the first zero pointer, the group used all their newfound hero knowledge to mount a coordinated strike. Which pretty much amounted to the steel quirk user barreling in head-first to the robot and ramming his body into one of its tracks and managing to knock the beast off balance. This gave Kendou an opening to enlarge her right fist and send a powerful punch into the neck of the now grounded mechanoid. At the same time, Tokage detached her left arm and launched it into the now exposed wiring of the robot's neck, completely ripping out a floating fistful of copper wiring. A satisfied grin came onto the girl's face as she watched the lights of its eyes turn off, signaling that it was out of commission.

With the first obstacle of many out of the way, the trio continued down the path with no intentions of looking back. As they navigated their way through the course, the sounds of crashing metal and loud bangs were enough for them to know that they needed to pick up the pace.

After another five minutes of dealing with random two and one-point robots, the hero students came up to obstacle number two. A rather disparaging looking canyon with a series of ropes tied at both ends. Just before the teens could begin to formulate a strategy, they were rushed by the group of students who just now managed to catch up with them. The density of the crowd proved to be overwhelming enough to cause Tetsutetsu to get lost of the madness. "Hey get out of my way you assholes!" the silver haired boy screamed out as he was pushed to far end of the mob. Luckily Kendou and Tokage managed to stay together by linking arms with each other. Both a bit discouraged by the loss of their classmate.

"What are we going to do now?" Kendou groaned once she got a look at how deep the revine actually was.

"I have an idea. But it's kind of risky." Tokage replied.

"What is it?"

"I can make my limbs float when I split my body. We can use that to float across. If you can keep everyone else a few meters away from me, I can use my arms and legs to carry you over. "

It took Kendou a few seconds to think over the proposal. Although it was a good idea, it would be hard to pull off if others started taking aim at them to cut down the competition. But before she could think about it any further, out the corner of her eye she saw a few students begin to cross. A girl with pink skin was already halfway through the canyon by apparently sliding over the ropes and another student with what looked to be a jetpack was simply flying over everyone._ 'How the heck is that allowed?'_ The orange haired girl thought before giving her partner an agreeing nod.

"Alright, let's do it."

Without a word, the green haired teen separated her limbs from her torso and hooked her arms under Kendou's armpits. Causing the teen to begin floating under the strength of her quirk. Deciding not to waste any time the duo set off for the other side. Thankfully for them, not one other student was close enough to them to cause Kendou to enlarge her hands.

After successfully crossing the trench, both girls were immediately met with the final obstacle of the course, which just so happened to be a minefield.

"Okay, how the heck is this even legal?" Awase groaned as he walked up behind his two classmates, obviously displeased at trial in front of them.

"Hopefully they're not set to detonate with a lethal amount of force."

"I sure hope not." Tokage agreed.

"Do you think that you can float us over again?"

"Sorry, but I'm kind of gassed right now. It takes a bit of time to recover after having my body separated for that long."

"Well...it looks like we're doing the old fashioned way."

And so they did. With the upmost care and attention to detail, the two students lightly treaded across the minefield. Making sure to avoid any spot that even remotely looked like it was recently dug up. This trial went on for roughly seven minutes. Thankfully this seemed to be spot where everyone took their time. Besides a few random explosions here and there from the surrounding area, the girls managed to safely get across without blowing themselves up.

Just as Kendou, Tokage and a few other students cross the final line of landmines, the voice of Present Mic echoed through the speaker system. **"Our first group of competitors have just crossed the finish line. In first place, Izuku Midoriya. Followed by Shoto Todoroki and Katsuki Bakugou!"**

"Of course those three would be first to get there." A guy with peculiar looking elbows said with a groan.

"Why are you even surprised?" Replied a girl with weird looking ears.

Deciding that now was not the time to lament over not getting first place, Kendou took off in a dead sprint with Tokage quickly following her lead along with the rest of the pack. As the group raced towards the finish line the sight of the stadium entrance came into view. Just then, a gust of wind flew by students causing dust to fly up around them. Kendou recovered her vision quickly enough to see class rep of 1-A zooming by them to the finish line.

Thankfully the rest of he journey was nowhere near as difficult for the orange haired girl as she and Tokage crossed the finish line together. Taking a second to look up at the stadium monitor, she saw her name next to thirty-sixth spot. As sigh of relief came from her mouth. She wanted to make it to the top ten, but her placement would mean that she would at least make it to the next round. Needless to say, she was glad that the first event was finally over.

As the rest of students began coming into the stadium, Kendou was more than a bit relieved to see that Tetsutetsu somehow managed to make it in a few spots before them. Along with what appeared to be the rest of 1-B.

"Hey, you two actually made it!" Tetsutetsu said to the two girls.

"You almost sound surprised."

"Whatever. So do you guys have any idea what the next event is going to be?"

"No clue. It's probably something team related though. That's usually what they do after the first round." Kendou replied.

Before the group could continue on with their conversation the forty-four remaining competitors were called to gather around the stage to await the announcement for the next event. They watched with anticipation as the R-Rated hero made her way to the podium.

_'I seriously can't believe they let her wear that at a high school event.' _Kendou thought, watching her hero arts history teacher strut up to the stage with a very exaggerated sway of her hips.

"Sorry about the delay folks," she said to the crowd. "I had some things I needed to sort out with the rest of the judges. But it's now time for the second event!" She continued as she cartoonishly motioned her hand to the stadium monitor. Sure enough, the next event flashed across the screen.

"Oh this is going to be a good one. The next trial for our lovely students will be a cavalry battle!"

* * *

**Author's Notes: To be honest, this was more of a bridge/filler chapter if anything else. I really only wrote this out so that I can introduce a few key elements of the story.**

**1\. The first thing that I wanted to establish was Midoriya's current mastery over 'One for All'. Power scaling was tough to figure out and I juggled how much exactly I thought that he should be able to use. I wanted him to be stronger than he was in cannon at this point without making him OP, for the sake of the story. I think the establish percentages are a reasonable amount considering how long he's had his quirk so far in the story. You guys will get a rough timeline of how long he's had 'OFA' in the upcoming chapters, so those questions will be answered. **

**2\. I also wanted to establish the 'Kendou-Squad' a bit. Tokage and Tetsutetsu are my favorite characters from 1-B, and in the manga they seem to work well with Kendou already so I though that they would be a good fit. Plus I have more than a few funny ideas cooked up on how they will interact with the 'Deku-Squad'. That being said, the 'Deku-Squad has officially been decided and I'm going to start slowly incorporating that into the upcoming chapters. Hopefully I can make the group dynamic work seeing as it's going to be a bit of a challenge. **

**As always, thank you for reading and don't be afraid to drop a review and let me know your guy's thoughts. **


	4. Sports Festival: Part 2

"The rules are the identical to regular cavalry battles that you see at other schools, you are to target the headbands of other groups and take their points. To make things more exciting and make your results from the last event more important, we've added a nice little twist. You have been assigned a point value based on when you returned. The last person will be worth five points, and then second to last will be worth ten and so on. Only Midoriya Izuku, who returned first, has an exemption to these rules. You see...he will be worth ten million points!"

Almost instantaneously, every set of eyes in the stadium locked onto the green haired boy. Normally, having such a huge target now painted onto your back would send a shiver down the spine of whoever had that unfortunate pleasure. But from what the orange haired girl could tell, the points leader looked almost... disinterested at this new development.

"All of you are required to group up in teams of four, no more no less. But you will be given ten minutes to choose your own groups. I suggest you all choose your teammates wisely."

As soon as Midnight ended her explanation, the shuffle amongst the students began to form their teams. Luckily for Kendou, Tokage was more than willing to team up with her. In events like these it's best to partner up with people that you know. On top of that, her quirk would be useful in a situation like this. If they played their cards rights, their team could snatch up points relatively undetected. But the green haired teen's quirk wouldn't be enough for this scenario. Especially since she didn't know the quirks of most everyone on the field. The duo conversed for a brief moment before concluding that they would need someone else, one that be able to handle crowd control. No doubt things were going to turn into chaos pretty quickly and they needed someone who was good for keeping people at a distance.

The duo looked around the group for another couple of minutes. To their annoyance, Tetsutetsu had already joined another team consisting of Komori, Honenuki and Awase. The girls hoped that they would be able to use him as the frontman of their group seeing as his quirk would be perfect for the job. As she scanned around the area once more, a sigh of relief came over Kendou when she spotted a patch of green hair standing by herself next to some 1-A students.

"Hey Shiozaki-chan, do you have a team yet?" Kendou asked her good hearted classmate as they walked up to her.

"I do not." The vine haired girl responded.

"Team up with us, with you we're sure to do well."

With a quick nod, the girl agreed and just like that their group only need one more member.

"Awesome, all we need is a fourth." Tokage said as she looked up to the clock on the big screen. They had four minutes left to chose and from what they could tell almost all the groups were pretty much formed.

While Kendou continued looking around she spotted a few potential teammates. There was a shorter student with what looked like purple balls on top of his head, but she dismissed the idea seeing as his stature wasn't really conducive to an advantage. A couple of seconds later she spotted a patch of brown hair styled up in bob-cut. She couldn't help but smile a bit at seeing Uraraka in the crowd with them. After the entrance exam the two failed to exchange phone numbers before separating. Admittedly, she was glad to see that the girl with bubbly personality managed to make it into U.A.. Deciding that her and her gravity quirk would be great for something like this, Kendou started walking over towards her. But before she could strike up a conversation the brunette was called over by another student. One with wild purple hair who looked like he desperately needed a nap.

As soon as it looked like the brunette was scooped up by the other team she looked to her right to see Monama conversing with a few of the students from her class. Kendou very quickly dismissed the thought. Although Monama's copy quirk would definitely be useful, she had a feeling that she didn't want to deal with his attitude. Tokage and Shiozaki had no problem in agreeing.

Just as the girl was about to give up, she looked over to her right next to the stadium wall and spotted Midoriya sitting in the same position that he took once the announcement of the cavalry battle had been made. He wasn't saying anything to anyone and looked almost as disinterested as ever.

"How about him?" Kendou asked, pointing a thumb over to the green haired loner.

"What, no way!" Tokage responded with almost no hesitation.

"I must agree with Tokage-san. Having him on our team would paint a rather large target on our backs." Shiozaki added.

"Well, we don't have a ton of options and he's got a powerful quirk from what we saw." She retorted. And she was right, there were only a couple of minutes left on the clock. From what she had seen before of what he can do, having someone with an enhancement quirk like his would be a benefit. Plus, if they managed to keep everyone at bay for the entirety of the round, their group would automatically be in first place. Despite the green haired boy's apparent loner personality, it was safe pick.

"Don't get me wrong. As much I'd like having a cute guy on our team, it's too risk- Hey Itsuka, what the hell?"

The orange haired girl didn't wait for any type of confirmation from her teammates before making her way over to Midoriya. She hoped that he wouldn't be too difficult to convince, but she doubted it seeing as they were both essentially out of options.

"Hey, Midoriya-san!" She called out.

The boy's eyes met her's at the sound of his name. His face as cold and indifferent as ever.

"You still need a team right? Why don't you come join us?"

The quirk inheritor looked her up and down for a brief moment before giving his response. "A-are you sure that's a good idea? Most people seem to want the opposite. A-and we're in different classes." He dryly stated.

"You're right, but everyone else is pretty much teamed up already, and from what I can tell you have a strong quirk. So why not, right?"

For a brief moment Kendou could swear that she saw a flicker come from the boys eyes before it quickly vanished. She couldn't quite place the look that he gave her, but she didn't have time to think about it. Surprisingly, the boy gave no contest to her proposal and agreed to it.

"Fine...it's not like I have much of a choice anyway." He said in a tone that any normal person would consider condescending.

_'Try not to sound too excited.'_ She thought, strongly reconsidering her decision to make him a teammate.

Deciding to put her newfound annoyance aside for the time being, she waved him on to follow her. The two students quickly made their way back to the rest of the group. A quick thought passing Kendou's mind that she was the only member of their team without green hair.

"S-so uh, this is our team?" The boy quietly asked.

"Sure is, let me introduce you. This is Setsuna Tokage and Ibara Shiozaki. All of us are in 1-B."

"Nice to meet you, Wonderboy." Tokage grinned.

"Greetings." Shiozaki politely said.

"We d-don't have a lot of time left s-so I suggest we devise a strategy."

_'Is he nervous?'_ Kendo thought after hearing the boy speak.

"Straight to the point huh?" Tokage chuckled.

"So...uh...what are your guy's quirks?"

Deciding to be the first to speak up, Shiozaki began with the introductions. "As you could probably already tell, my quirk is _'vines'_. I can manipulate the vines on my head to a pretty high degree but the more of them I use at a time, the less fine motor control I have." She demonstrated by waving a few strands of her hair in front of him.

"I call mine_ 'lizard tail splitter'_. I can split my body up into pieces and control them individually. Right now I can only divide myself up into about twenty pieces and I can only keep it like that for a few minutes. My range is limited to about fifty meters too."

"And mine is _'big fist'_. I have the ability to enlarge both of my hands to a gigantic size. With the size, the overall strength in my hands is greatly improved along with their durability and grip strength." Kendou spoke up. "Yours' is some type of strength enhancement type, right?" She asked, receiving a quick nod from the boy.

"Wow, you guys have some pretty amazing quirks." The verdant teen said with slightly more enthusiasm than Kendou was use to seeing from him._ "I kinda wish I brought my notebook with me."_ He quietly thought to himself.

"What was that?" Shiozaki asked.

"O-oh uh nothing. A-a-anyways I think I have a plan that will maximize our strengths."

"And is this plan of your's going to help that fact that we're going to be the number one target, Mr. Ten Million points?"

"Y-yes, actually it's going to be the one thing that works to our advantage."

"Oh really?" Shiozaki questioned.

"So what've you got Midoriya-san?" Kendou asked the green haired student.

"It's kind of r-risky, but here's what I think we should do."

* * *

Kendou couldn't remember the last time she had felt this nervous as her group waited for the cavalry battle began. Looking around the field and staring down her own classmates made her spine go rigid and her hands feel clammy. It was already bad enough that they were now the main target for the rest of the groups, but she was fairly certain that the fact that they had a member of 1-A on their team made them stand out amongst her own classmates. Shiozaki's hand on her shoulder gave a light squeeze, recognizing the tension inside, but it did little to calm her nerves. _'Just start already._' she thought, tempted to say it aloud. But despite her nerves, Kendou was feeling really good about the impending choas. Especially with the plan that Midoriya had concocked for their team.

**"Beginning the second event! Prepare yourself for this totally brutal battle royal!" **Present Mic said as his voice rang through the stadium.** "START!"**

As if on cue, almost every team in the stadium charged directly for them. For a brief moment Kendou felt her legs tense up but the light nudge from the boy riding on top of her quickly snapped her out of it.

"Okay, just like we planned. Let's go!" The green haired boy commanded to the group as they dashed forward, right into the frey.

"Don't think that just because you got lucky in the first round that you're better than me, Deku!" Bakugou shouted as his team approached. The other members of his group consisting of girl with pink skin, the guy with odd looking elbows and that same red haired kid from earlier.

_'Deku?'_ Kendou thought at hearing the blonde's words. It didn't take a genius to figure out that the guy wasn't the nicest person in the world. But throwing out insults like that was pretty bizarre.

"I'm coming for your points you useless nerd!"

Without so much as a word Midoriya ripped the piece of cloth off of his forehead before slamming it into the chest of his opponent.

"What th-" was all Bakugou could say before the headband was slapped against his body. Surprising him just as much as everyone else in the stadium.

**"What's this? Team Midoriya has ditched their points? I think that's the opposite of what you should be doing."** Present Mic said over the loudspeaker, failing to hide the surprise in his voice.

**"Having such a huge target on your head is a major disadvantage in a scenario like this. It's only logical to get rid of the points as early as possible and keep attention away from yourselves."** The nighttime hero Eraserhead groggily responded.

"Well at least we got that out of the way." The green haired boy sighed. "Shiozaki-san, did you manage to grab one?"

"Yes, although it was a bit of a close call." The vine haired girl replied as she held up a headband with her vine, one with 600 points on it. Curtesy of Team Tetsutetsu.

"Good, I'll wear that one around my neck just in case other groups still come after us. For now let's just stick to the outside and try and be as discreet as possible."

"Y'know wonderboy, for someone with a flashy quirk you sure like to be low key about everything." Tokage joked.

"Um...t-thanks." He responded, a somewhat uneasy tone to his voice. To be honest, he still found it strange to be complimented for his quirk.

Just as the green haired boy predicted, all of the attention in the stadium was now focused on Team Bakugou and their newfound point total. While most every other team around them made their plays at the guaranteed victory, Team Midoriya hung to the outside. Although it wasn't easy, they discreetly snatched up the headbands of the teams closer to the edges of the dogpile. Thanks to Tokage and Shiozaki's long range capabilities they were able to move undetected.

The plan was simple, Kendou was the front man and would act as a shield, Tokage and Shiozaki would extend their quirks out and snatch up points from other teams while they were distracted, and Midoriya from his position at the top of the horse would keep a lookout around them. And it was proving to be an effective strategy. One that lasted up until the final moments of the round.

Suddenly, the temperature dropped around their team just before a sheet of ice appeared and blocked their path. Kendou looked to the right to see Team Todoroki making a beeline straight for their group, with Team Monama right behind them.

"What the heck? They're still coming after us? They have more points than our group." Tokage questioned.

"Todoroki-san's group probably sees me as a bigger threat. It makes sense to do what you can to cut down the competition before the tournament."

Just before either of the girls could comment, the son of the number two hero and his team were surrounded by a bubble of what appeared to be solid air. The students of 1-B quickly recognized it as Tsuburaba's handiwork.

"Girls, I'm almost disappointed. Siding with a member of 1-A, have you no shame?" Monama mocked as his team came charging towards them. "We probably have enough points to make it to the next round, so why not trim the excess fat. Am I right?"

Instead of responding to their classmate, Kendou immediately enlarged her hands and threw a fistful of dirt that she picked up at them. Leading her team away from their pursuers. The last thing they needed was to get caught in one of Tsuburaba's air bubbles.

"Kendou-san, what's the big deal? Are those guys strong?" The green haired boy asked her.

"Monama-san can copy quirks by touching you. If he uses Tsuburaba-san's or Kuroiro-san's quirks then they can capture us pretty easily."

"He can what?" The boy's shocked outburst almost startled his teammates. _'If he manages to touch me, then he might be able to copy 'One for All'.'_

"Stop moving!" He commanded to the girls under him. A confused look coming from the three of the them as they came to a sudden halt, only to see his left arm extended outward towards Team Monama. A faint red glow forming underneath his skin.

_'Twelve percent Delaware Smash!'_ He shouted internally as he launched an air bullet towards the blonde haired boy by flicking out his middle finger. Needless to say that no one was expecting the sudden attack from him. In less than a second, the entirety of Monama's team was knocked to the ground by the sudden wave of air. The ruckus drawing the attention of every pair of eyes in the stadium.

"Oh shit!" Tokage shouted in a stunned fashion. "What the hell was that, Wonderboy?"

"S-sorry, I couldn't risk doing that while we were still moving. The force could've broken up our group. Shiozaki-san, they're disqualified but their points are still good, grab the-" Before Midoriya could finish his sentence he felt a not so subtle pull from around his neck.

He looked behind him to see that in the confusion, Team Todoroki managed to break free of their air prison. And, probably thanks to Iida, they managed to run passed them and grab the headband from around his neck.

"You should pay more attention to your surroundings, Midoriya. Needless to say that you're not advancing to the next round." The heterochromatic student said with a cold but mocking tone. A tone that Kendou didn't like at all. _'Seriously, is everyone in 1-A just an asshole?'_ Before anyone could get another word in, the signal for the end of the cavalry battle came by way of the loud stadium horn.

With the sound of the horn signaling that the battle was over. Team Todoroki couldn't help but feel proud of themselves. Not only had they managed to get second place, but they also eliminated the threat of having to deal with Midoriya in the next round.

"Alright ladies and gentlemen, let's check out the standings for the cavalry battle. With 10,000,995 points is Team Bakugou in first place." Midnight announced with a wave of hand towards to the monitor. Judging by the almost maniacal laugh coming from the ashen blonde student, they managed to hold on to the headband the entire match.

The crowd cheered for the winning team.

"In second place, Team Todoroki. With 1,255 points"

More cheers followed the announcement of second place. Along with a particularly loud and deep voice coming from the hero section that Kendou couldn't quite see.

"In third place, is Team Midoriya. With 1,070 points."

"What?!" The students collectively shouted before turning to the scoreboard. Sure enough, as clear as day, the monitor read that the green haired boy's team was in third place."

"How is that even possible? We took their headband." The vice class rep of 1-A, Momo Yaoyorozu, asked. Presumably speaking for everyone else.

"Well, you're not wrong…" Kendou said with a halfway guilty look as her and the other members of her group began rummaging through their pockets. In a matter of seconds all four of them pulled out various headbands that coincidentally all added up to 1,070 points, along with one of Shiozaki's vines latching onto the points from Monama's disqualified group.

"Hold on! Midnight-sensei that can't be allowed." The pink girl with horns complained to the teacher.

"Deku you fucking nerd! This was your idea wasn't it?" A now irate Bakugou shouted as he began stomping over to the green haired boy.

"Actually boom-boy it was mine." Tokage interjected. "Midnight-sensei never said that we _had_ to keep the headbands on our heads."

"Tokage is right." Midnight stated from her position on the stage. "The rules never disallowed doing such an act. Team Midoriya, great job thinking outside the box and securing yourselves a spot in the tournament."

"That's such a dirty trick!" The blonde boy with the black streak in his hair shouted.

"You think so~?" Tokage chuckled with a wink.

"Most certainly, it was a most dishonest of strategies. I can't help but feel a bit shamed at such an act." Shiozaki said in a sadden tone.

"Come on Shiozaki-chan, think of it as simply outsmarting everyone else." Kendou tried to reassure her classmate.

"Now finally, in fourth place is Team Shinsou. With 690 points." The R-Rated hero announced.

_'Who's Shinsou?'_ Kendou thought as she looked around. After a brief second of searching, the orange haired girl's eyes locked onto a group consisting of that same purple haired boy from earlier, Uraraka, a girl with pink hair who was also wearing a jetpack and another student with the head of a bird. What was strange was that everyone on that team aside from the tired looking student all had confused looks on their faces.

"Congratulations to all our competitors! But especially to our sixteen finalists! We're going to take a brief lunch for our fans and students to relax before the final round and prepare the arena. But before that, here are the matchups for the upcoming one-on-one tournament." Midnight said with yet another exaggerated motion towards the staium monitor.

On cue, the first bracket for the final tornament appeared on the screen.

Midoriya vs Bakugou

Kendou vs Shinsou

Hatsume vs Iida

Tokoyami vs Yaoyorozu

Tokage vs Uraraka

Ibara vs Kaminari

Kirishima vs Ashido

Todoroki vs Sero

While Kendou and the others were high-fiving each other for making to the final round, Midoriya couldn't help but feel a slight tingle down his spine. _'Of course I'd be facing him.'_ He thought as he turned his gaze towards Bakugou, only to be met with piercing red eyes along with an animalistic look. Just as the boy was about to take his leave and head to the stadium cafeteria, he felt a hand on his shoulder.

After her quick celebration with her classmates, Kendou turned to congratulate Midoriya as well and thank him for his help. But the second she tried to speak to the verdant teen, she noticed him walking off into one of the tunnels with Todoroki. _'I guess he's done with us. Would it kill him to at least stick around for a second and thank us for the help?'_

Deciding to not dwell on it, the girls of 1-B marched off to get some much needed food and rest to prepare for the next round.

* * *

**Author's Note: I'm not going to lie, I really liked writing this chapter out. I mainly just wanted to switch up how the cavalry battle went, along with the tournament. Weirdly enough, the hardest part about writing this chapter was calculating the points totals for all the teams. You hardly ever see any fics where Midoriya is teamed up with a different group. Also, I feel like doing something "dirty" like stuffing the headbands in your pockets is definitely in-character for Tokage. Next chapter we're going to get into the one on one battles. I'm going to let you all know right now that I'm not going to write out every single fight, but I will take the time to let the readers know how they go.**

**1\. Obviously Midoriya vs Bakugou is going to happen next chapter. I'm going to use that as a chance to give some more of backstory. Like I said, I'm giving it in pieces but what you guys learn next chapter is pretty significant. I hope you all enjoy.**

**2\. I feel like this was implied by the way the story started out, but let me just clarify that the romance part of this story is definitely going to be a 'slow burn'. Hopefully you guys aren't disappointed in that. These two still have a long ways to go before we get to that point. **

**As always, thanks for reading and don't be afraid to drop a review.**


	5. Sports Festival: Part 3

The anticipation in the air was almost palpable as the crowd waited for one-on-one tournament to begin. After all, this was the event that everyone was waiting to see. After the announcement of the first bracket, it was hard to miss everyone, pro heroes included, placing their bets to see who would come out on top. From what the 1-B students could gather, Midoriya, Bakugou and Todoroki were the favorites to win it all. But their very own Shiozaki seemed to be amongst the notable contenders as well.

As the students of class 1-B took their seats in their assigned section, Tokage, Tetsutetsu and Shiozaki all decided to sit together to cheer their classmate on. Since her match was next up, Kendou was already in her assigned waiting room where she could watch the first fight on the TV at the top corner of the room. She was glad too, whomever won this match was going to be her opponent in the next round. And considering the quirks of both participants, getting an early look at their fighting styles was vital. From what she had already seen from the previous rounds, Bakugou used his explosions for high mobility maneuvers. On top of that she was still curious about that 'air blast' move that Midoriya used during the cavalry battle. If she was being honest with herself, either way she would be at a disadvantage. Her quirk only really worked for close range situations, and both of these boys had close, mid and long range capabilities. Needless to say that if she won her fight, she was in for an uphill battle.

Back at the 1-B section, the rest of her classmates were expressing similar thoughts amongst themselves.

"Both these guys are in 1-A right? Who do you think is going to win it?" Tetsutetsu asked his classmates.

"I have no clue. They're both pretty strong." Tokage responded.

"Yeah, that Bakugou kid has an explosion quirk so you can't really get too close to him."

"Speaking of which, what is that Midoriya dude's quirk? I thought it was a strength enhancement type but he also made that gust of wind earlier right?"

"It is most certainly a rather versatile ability." Shishida chimed in as he adjusted his glasses. "Not only is his strength and speed augmented, but he has long range combat capabilities to supplement them as well. Perhaps we'll be able to witness more of what he can do during this bout?"

"Who knows? Whatever it is, I'm sure this is going to be fun to watch."

_'You're right about that.'_ The rest of class mentally agreed with Awase.

* * *

**"Alright ladies and gentlemen, the time is now. The moment that you've all been waiting for, our one-on-one battle tournament!"**

The crowd erupted into cheers and howls once Present Mic's voice came through the stadium speakers.

**"Our first match is going to feature two of the top dogs of Class 1-A. Both of these boys are heavy favorites to win it all, but only one of them can make it to the next round."**

**"Now for our first competitor. He may silent but he sure is deadly, he also got first place on both the written exam and the hero course practical exam. Please welcome, Izuku Midoriya!"**

"Wait, this guy got the top spot on the written test too?" Tetsutetsu asked the question that everyone in the 1-B booth was apparently thinking.

"Is there anything this dude can't do?" Kaibara groaned.

**"Next up, sporting a face that only a mother could love. His mouth is almost as explosive as his fists, give it up for Katsuki Bakugou!"**

As he walked up to the ring, Midoriya was admittedly having a difficult time keeping his nerves in check. The moment he saw his name against Bakugou's on the tournament bracket, his mind began racing. Sure, he knew that going up against the explosion quirk user was a possibility. But a part of him was still hoping to avoid it.

The moment both boys set foot inside the boundary line, Bakugou was shooting Midoriya a look that the quirk inheritor knew all too well. It was the kind of look that the blonde always had when he felt nothing but pure and utter annoyance. In the past, that feral gaze would've stricken fear into the green haired boy's heart. But that was in the past. Now, while looking into the eyes of his opponent, Midoriya couldn't help but want to laugh at himself for ever thinking that this wild animal standing before him could ever actually be his friend.

"You're lucky that I didn't get a chance to cush you during battle training, Deku! But you can't hide from me now. And once I'm done kicking your ass you're going to tell me exactly how you got that shitty quirk of yours!" The ashe blonde yelled at his opponent. Only to get more irritated by the lack of response.

To say that the explosion quirk user was pissed off would be an understatement. Ever since he first laid eyes on this green haired nerd their first day of class, he demanded answers. Not only was it the first time that he had seen the boy in damn near two years, but in that time he somehow managed to get an admittedly flashy quirk. But, what irritated him the most now was that his attitude and personality had completely changed from what it use to be. This wasn't the same spineless loser that used to cower at his feet any time he even got near him. Since the last time that the two had interacted, every time he met the green haired boy's gaze he was met with what could only be described as contempt and indifference. Not only had he been showed up by this loser on the entrance exam, but he had the audacity to look down on him as well by throwing his points at him in the last round. And that was something that the blonde haired boy wouldn't stand for. He was going to put this worthless fuck in his place, once and for all.

"Alright boys, I want a good clean match. No hits below the belt and no excessive use of force. Do you both understand?" The two boys gave a quick nod to the deviously dressed referee.

"Let the first match, begin!" Midnight shouted with a wave of her hand.

Bakugou wasted no time in making the first move. Using his left hand, he created an explosion that thrusted him directly towards Midoriya. As he readied his right, he knew the match was over. All he needed was one good hit and he would blast the green haired nerd back to whatever hole he had decided to crawl out from.

"Die!" He shouted, delivering the final blow. A thick cloud of smoke followed the loud bang.

* * *

"Holy shit!" Awase shouted, not noticing the unapproving look that Shiozaki immediately gave him.

"He just blasted him at point blank range like that?" Kaibara asked to no one in particular.

"I get going all out, but that was definitely an excessive amount of force."

Just before anyone could get out another word, the smoke cloud started to dissipate. The entire stadium was silent, waiting to see the aftermath of Bakugou's handywork.

* * *

"You haven't changed a bit...Bakugou." The voice of Midoriya said as the last of the smoke cleared. Shocking everyone in the stadium with the sight before them.

Not only was the green haired boy still conscious, he appeared to be perfectly fine. After getting over their initial shock, the crowd finally noticed the position that the two combatants were in. Midoriya was holding Bakugou's arm by the wrist, with his palm facing upward and away from his face.

"Let go of me you god damn nerd!" The explosion quirk user shouted as he shot off another blast with his left hand. Only for it to be slapped away before making contact.

What followed after the ashen blonde's attempt was so quick that they needed to replay it on the stadium monitor a few times for everyone to actually see what happened.

Almost in the blink of an eye, Midoriya's body became surrounded by the same green electricity from before. And in one swift motion, his right fist made contact with the explosion quirk user's face. The impact of the punch was so forceful that the blonde haired boy was unconscious before he even hit the ground.

The crowd immediately went silent once again as they tried to piece together what they had just witnessed.

"Katsuki Bakugou is unable to continue. The winner of the first match is Izuku Midoriya!" Midnight announced after taking a brief second herself to recover.

* * *

From the 1-B booth it was hard to miss the laughter coming from Togaru Kamakiri. "Haha...well, so much for winning the tournament!" The blade quirk user said while making no attempt to tone down his cheers.

"I guess this match was more one-sided than we thought." Tokage replied, a cold sweat forming on the back of her own neck.

* * *

Kendou's blood immediately went cold as she watched the match from her seat in the waiting room. Sure she had seen the green haired boy's quirk first hand, but she never expected him to have such great reaction time as well. If she didn't know any better, it almost looked like Midoriya knew exactly what Bakugou was going to do before the explosion quirk user did.

Suddenly the realization hit her, if she won her match she was going to have to go up against him in the next round. Sure she still had no idea what Shinsou's quirk was, which was bad enough. But knowing what she'd eventually have to go against was kind of...disconcerting.

* * *

"-doriya."

As he looked down at his fallen opponent, he could practically feel the blood rushing into his ears.

"-oriya!"

He did it, he really did it. He was still having a difficult time wrapping his head around it. After all this time, all those years of bullying and torment, he finally did it.

"Midoriya!"

As he felt the power of 'One for All' dying down inside of his body, he couldn't help but feel a bit uneasy about himself. After hearing the blonde's taunting, his quirk seemingly activated on its own. He could tell that he used roughly ten percent with that punch, which was towing the line on excessive use of force against another student. But for some reason, he was okay with it.

If he was being honest with himself, as much as he looked forward to this exact moment. The moment when he finally beat the explosion quirk user fair and square. He couldn't help but feel a bit...unsatisfied. Maybe that wasn't the right word, 'restless' was probably a better way to describe how he felt. But the feeling was still there. Something inside of his body still felt unfulfilled to him. Something like...

"Midoriya!" Midnight shouted for the fourth time.

"Wha-huh?"

"I need you to clear the ring so we can begin the next match."

"Oh uh, s-sorry Midnight-sensei."

"It's fine. In the future try to hold back a bit though. If you had hit him any lower than his cheek you might have caused a serious injury."

"R-right."

"Now go and get out of here."

As Midoriya slowly made his way off the stage, he couldn't help but smile a bit at his victory. Sure he was proud of himself, finally beating the explosion quirk user in a fair fight. But was he hoping that this would've been enough to finally get the boy off his back.

Ever since first arriving at U.A. he had made it a point to avoid the blonde haired boy if he could help it. Which was kind of difficult seeing as he sat right behind him in class. It was already bad enough that Bakugou pestered him about where he had been for the last two years, and when he got his "shitty quirk". But luckily they never had the option of going head to head, up until now. For some reason though, he couldn't shake the feeling that this wasn't going to be the end of it.

* * *

"Itsuka Kendou and Hitoshi Shinsou, please make your way to the stage." The speaker in the waiting room announced.

The orange haired teen stood up and shook the nervousness out of her body. She was ready and she was confident that she would win this match. 'Alright_ Itsuka, now's your time to shine.'_ She thought to herself in one final attempt to psych herself up before heading out to the ring.

**"What a way to kick off the first round, am I right folks? Next up is match number two."**

**"First up, the president of class 1-B. The girl that will knock your lights out, Itsuka Kendou!"**

It was hard for Kendou to miss the exceptionally loud howling coming from the 1-B section of stadium. Admittedly, it felt good having her classmates cheering her on.

**"And her opponent. The dark horse from the general studies department, he hasn't done that much to stand out so we all can't wait to see what he's made of, Hitoshi Shinsou!"**

"Let the second match, begin!" Midnight announced with a wave of her whip.

"This is going to be a piece of cake." The purple haired boy taunted.

"Oh you thin-"

The moment the words came out of her mouth, Kendou felt her entire body tense. Her muscles locked up and it felt as if someone put her entire brain in a pot of freezing water. The only thing she could get her mind to focus on was her opponent's voice. _'What the hell?'_

"This was almost too easy. Now go ahead and walk out of bounds for me, princess." Shinsou ordered.

Kendou's body began moving of its own accord, turning around and walking towards the outer ring. She could just barely make out the screaming voices coming from her classmates in the stands.

_'Why can't I stop myself from moving?'_

"Someone like you could never understand what it's like."

_'What is he talking about?_'

"You were born with a flashy quirk. I bet everyone praised you for it and told you what an awesome hero that you'd be."

_'What's with this guy?'_

"I was always told that I should be a villain. Sometimes even I wished that I was born quirkless. But don't worry about it, once I win this thing I'll have proved them all wrong."

Choosing to do her best to ignore the boy's rambling, Kendou used every bit of willpower that she could muster to move her body. But it would all prove to be pointless. In a matter of seconds, the orange haired teen stepped over the boundary line of the ring. The moment her foot crossed the line, whatever force had control of her body and mind broke. Thrusting Kendou back to full cognizance. She immediately looked back at her opponent, only to be met with a satisfied smirk that made her skin crawl.

"Itsuka Kendou is out of bounds. Hitoshi Shinsou is the winner!" Midnight announced to the now stunned audience. Everyone looking around to each other to try and figure out what they had just seen.

* * *

"What the heck just happened?" Honenuki looked around to his classmates for some kind of explanation. Only to see that most of them wore the same confused expressions as everyone else in the stadium.

"I don't know, but that general studies kid appears to have a quirk that controls people." Hiryu Rin replied.

"Poor Kendou-chan." Tsunotori said as she watched her classmate walk off the field and into the tunnel.

* * *

From his spot in the back corner of the 1-A section, Midoriya's curious mind was running a mile a minute as he analyzed what he had just witness.

_'Kendou-san appeared to be completely in control of herself when the match started. But the expression on her face changed right after the two began talking.'_ He thought to himself as he replayed the match in his head. His mind going wild with theories on Shinsou's quirk. Obviously it was some form of mind control or telepathy related power, but the rest was unknown. _'I'm going up against him in the next match, I should probably avoid saying anything to him and end it quickly.'_

* * *

**Author's Notes: I know, I know, how could I let Kendou get knocked out in the first round? Let just say that now that she's officially out of the tournament she'll have some free time to gain some information on a certain green haired student. **

**1\. Yes, Midoriya vs Bakugou was not as exciting as what I'm sure you all were hoping. In my mind, with Midoriya having the mastery over OfA that he does now, it wasn't really a contest to begin with. Don't worry, this is definitely not the last time that these two are going to go at it. I have something very special planned for that part of this story. I mainly wanted to use this short fight as way to introduce another piece of information on Midoriya's backstory. **

**2\. Next chapter is going to be our first real interaction with the members of Class 1-A in this story. It won't be anything crazy, but it's mainly to serve the purpose of more backstory. Also showing what the others think of Midoriya. **

**3\. I apologize if I keep recycling the same 1-B characters during some of these scenes. Unfortunately, when I looked up their personality bios, the majority of them are described as quiet or non-talkative types. The only "outgoing" personalities in the class are Kendou, Tokage, Monama, Tetsutetsu, Honenuki and Kamakiri. I'll do my best to flesh out some of the characters a bit more to further the story, but don't expect any major character shifts. **

**As always, thanks for reading and don't be afraid to post a review. **


	6. Sports Festival: Part 4

"Kendou-chan/san!"

"Itsuka!"

The students of Class 1-B shouted in unison as soon as the orange haired teen walked into their assigned section. Wasting no time in crowding around her.

"Hey guys." She said with a weak chuckle, rubbing the back of her head. "I guess I kind of let you all down, huh? I mean, how can the class rep get knocked out in the first round?"

"Don't give us that. At least you made it to the tournament stage." Tetsutetsu said as he gave her a pat on the back.

"Yes, despite your loss you still put on quite the showing, if I do so myself." Shishida agreed.

"Come on guys, you're just trying to make me feel better." Kendou replied, doing her best to keep down the light redness that was slowly starting to form on her cheeks. "I do wish I was still in it though. I didn't really get a chance to stand out to the pros."

"We're serious! If you didn't go up against that general studies kid in the first round, you definitely would've gotten far."

"That is true. To be honest, there's not much you can do against a mind controlling quirk. You just so happened to draw the short straw." The majority of the students nodding in agreement with Honenuki.

"In any case, I'm certain that you will be receiving many internship offers from the pros." Shishida did his best to console his class rep.

Admittedly, it felt good for the 'big fist' user to receive such positive feedback from her classmates. She was sure that some of the others would have given her hell for getting knocked out so easily, but it looks likes she was wrong.

"I appreciate the kind words you guys. But let's not dwell on the past. Setsuna and Shiozaki-chan can still win this thing. Let's make sure we cheer them on extra loud." The orange haired teen beamed to her classmates.

"Yeah!" Several students shouted in agreeance.

"Don't worry guys, we're going to make sure that no one takes 1-B lightly." Tokage beamed with a toothy smirk.

"Yes, we will ensure that the lord's grace shines brightly upon our class." The vine haired student said with clasped hands. Practically glowing under the light of the sun.

_'Seriously, where does that light even come from?'_ The rest of students thought about their good hearted classmate's sudden spotlight.

* * *

The next match up featured the support course first year Mei Hatsume versus Tenya Iida, the class rep of 1-A. And to say that the match was 'interesting' would be putting it mildly. The crowd watched for roughly fifteen minutes as the pink haired inventor essentially used the engine quirk user as a human billboard for her inventions. Or "babies", as the crowd heard her say more than a few times. She somehow even managed to hack the stadium's p.a. system for full effect. After she ran through every piece of equipment that she brought along with her, the zoom quirk user casually stepped out of ring and took her leave. Leaving everyone in the stadium equally stunned.

_'Hatsume-san seems a little…eccentric. But her inventions are really cool. Maybe I can find a way to get her to work on my costume.'_ The quirk inheritor thought from his spot in the back corner of the 1-A section.

* * *

Following Hastume's controversial...defeat, was Tokoyami versus Yaoyorozu. Unfortunately for the raven haired vice-rep of Class 1-A, the match was over just as quickly as it started. All it took was three hits from Tokoyami's dark shadow to push her out of the ring. The creation quirk user seemed to carry a face of shame as she made her way off of the field.

_'Dark Shadow is definitely powerful. It's good for defense, on top of that it's great for long and mid-range attacks. I'm fairly certain it's weaker the brighter it is outside, though. From what I remember, some of the others mentioned that his quirk went out of control for a while back at the USJ.'_

* * *

The first real match of tournament came from Setsuna Tokage and Ochako Uraraka. Despite a valiant effort from the gravity quirk user, the vice-rep of Class 1-B simply overwhelmed her in a matter of minutes. After getting surrounded and pummeled by multiple pieces of Tokage's body, the brunette eventually passed out after taking too many hits. Giving Tokage the first win for Class 1-B in the tournament.

_'Tokage-san's quirk is certainly an issue for anyone who can't use ranged attacks. And she seems to be smart enough to know how to maneuver herself in multiple places at once. I can see why she got in on recommendations.'_

* * *

Shiozaki versus Kaminari proved to be another quick victory. The electric quirk user tried to fire off a maximum voltage attack only to be quickly subdued by Shiozaki's vines. This match was the fastest so far, being over in less than ten seconds.

_'Kaminari-san simply drew the short straw for this match. Shiozaki-san's quirk is the perfect counter for his electricity, and she has the skill to use it both offensively and defensively. If I remember correctly, she came in fifth on the entrance exam with a very good score.'_

* * *

Kirishima and Ashido were next up on the board. This bout between the two former middle school classmates amounted to an endurance match if anything else. Although Kirishima did his best to hold his quirk up, Ashido's onslaught of acid corroded his defense long enough for the girl to deliver a surprisingly forcefull knockout blow. Advancing the pink skinned girl to the next round.

_'Kirishima-san is too honest in the way he goes about fighting. If he wasn't so hung up on his 'manliness' he could've won this match easily by taking Ashido's feet out from under her and limiting her mobility. Ashido-san on the other hand just fired off her quirk indiscriminately across the area. She's susceptible to long-range attacks.'_

* * *

The final match of the first round featured the heterochromatic Shoto Todoroki vs Hanta Sero of Class 1-A. Once again, it was another quick victory as Todoroki unleashed a glacier of ice that nearly froze over half the stadium the second that Midnight begun the match.

_'I don't know if that attack was a message to me or his father. I still didn't know what to think after he pulled me aside after the cavalry battle. But I guess he's serious about only using his left side. To think that he would just waste half of his quirk like he is now just to spite Endeavor is ridiculous. If he thinks that he can beat me without giving it his all, he must either think very highly of himself or very little of me. Then again, so does everyone else born with powerful a quirk like he was. He's arrogant, but not in the same way as Bakugou. Either way, I don't like it.'_

* * *

A somewhat relieved sigh came from the lipless mouth of Juzo Honenuki as stadium staff did what they could to thaw Sero out of his frozen shell. "Man, I'm kinda glad that I don't have to go against him."

"Yeah, being frozen in an ice-block like that would definitely stop my mood." Tsunotori agreed.

"Either way Setsuna or Shiozaki-chan are going to have to face him in the semi-finals. I hope they can think up a good plan to deal with that ic-" Kendou stated right before a very annoying voice on her right caught her attention.

"...class 1-A jerks aren't ready for Shiozaki-chan or Tokage-chan! You losers might as well give it up now, haha!"

_'Monama…'_

"And one more thi-"

Just before the copy quirk user could continue on with his tirade, Kendou delivered a rather forceful karate chop to the back of his neck. Knocking the blonde boy out instantly. As she took the time to pick up Monama's limp body from over the divider wall, she was met with the curious looks of the students of class 1-A. It was the first time that the orange haired girl had interacted with their class, minus Midoriya, Iida and Yaoyorozu. And she was not about to let Monama of all people ruin their class' image.

"Sorry about him guys. He's kind of crazy. Please don't think that all of us in 1-B are like that." The 'big fist' user apologized to the other students.

"Kendou-chan, hey!" The bubbly voice of Ochaco Uraraka practically shouted out with excitement.

"Uraraka-san, how's it going? You did pretty good in your match. Sorry you had to go up against Setsuna though, her quirk is a hassle to deal with. But it was still a good showing."

"Thanks, but if anyone should be apologizing it's me." The gravity quirk user's somber tone was not missed by Kendou.

"Huh?"

"You had to go up against that guy in general studies. Sorry I didn't get a chance to warn you about his quirk. He used it on me, Tokoyami-kun and that support course girl before the cavalry battle. We didn't even know what happened until after it was already over."

"What a jerk. Hey don't worry about it. He's fighting Midoriya-san next so I'm sure he'll get what's coming to him. Have you told him about it yet?"

"Honestly, it would've been pointless to try. It's not like he would've listen to my advice anyway." The girl said with a somewhat annoyed scowl on her face.

"Hmmm, I guess that makes sense. Hey...I got a question."

"Yeah?"

"Is Midoriya-san as much of jerk in class as I think he is? We've only ever interacted a couple of times but other than us teaming up together for the cavalry battle, he kind of brushed me and the others off."

"Oh...yeah. He hardly ever speaks to anyone in class. The only time he bothers talking to people is during group assignments. Even then, he barely says a few words." The brunette responded, a few other students behind her nodding in agreement of her description of their classmate.

"Yeah...he doesn't really strike me as a very sociable person."

"I wouldn't think too much about it." Another female voice interjected. "He's always been like that." Kendou looked to the left of Uraraka to see a girl with purple hair and strange looking earlobes. Jiro was her name, if Kendou remembered correctly.

"Is that so? So you know him then?"

"Kinda...I mean, we went to middle school together." The purple haired teen shrugged.

"Really?"

"Yeah, he transferred to our school a little bit after the start of our second year. We were in different classes, but from what I know he was total loner back then too. The only time he ever really interacted with people was when someone asked him to borrow his notes for class. Although, there was this one girl named Rayet Yamanaka that he'd be seen with every now and then. Besides that, total lone wolf type of guy."

"Wow." Was all Kendou could say after hearing Jiro's words.

"He may be kind of a jerk, but at least he isn't a total asshole. I mean, he did save our butts during the USJ attack." A floating set of clothes said as she waved her arms around while pointing(?) to a blonde boy with a tail.

"Oh yeah, I did hear something like that. Sorry you guys had to go through that."

"Hey, it's all water under the bridge." The floating uniform waved off in a bubbly tone.

"Speaking of jerks. Please tell me that everyone in your class isn't like blondie over there." The horned girl, Mina Ashido pointed to a still slumped over Monama.

"Oh, definitely not." Tokage interjected as she took up a spot next to Kendou, not one to miss out on some girl talk. "I know our classes are supposed to be rivals and all that, but Monama is a bit of a special case. To be honest, I think he might have rabies."

That joke got more than few laughs from the group of girls. And a few of the guys sitting close by.

"Good, the last thing we need is another guy like that in the hero course." The pinkett continued.

"You got that right. It seems like you guys have your fair share of difficult personalities though. Midoriya is one thing, but that Bakugou guy and Endeavor's son seem like they're not a lot of fun to be around either." Kendou said rather nonchalantly while looking around to the other students of the class.

There were some interesting looking characters in 1-A based on initial glance. There was a masked guy with six arms, and another student that looked as though he his head was made of rocks. Then again, with people like Bondo and Kamakiri walking around, people probably thought the same thing about her class. Luckily from what she could tell, none of them carried around that same type of aura as Midoriya or the other two.

"Speaking of Bakugou…" Ashido stated as she looked around the booth. "Where the hell has he been? Ever since his match with Midoriya he's been a total ghost."

"He's probably pouting somewhere. Serves him right after what he did at the opening ceremony, gero." A girl with frog like features bluntly stated.

"Well anyways, sorry for bothering you. We'll make sure to keep Monama in check for now. It was nice talking you guys."

"You too." The group of girls responded.

As Kendou and Tokage sat back down in their seats, the redhead couldn't help but be interested in the outcome of this match. She still had no clue how exactly Shinsou's brainwashing worked and Midoriya was essentially going in blind. She was curious as to what kind of strategy the verdant teen was going to use to handle this situation. If she had to place a bet, she would gamble that he'd use another one of those 'air burst' attacks from the cavalry battle.

* * *

**"Alright folks, things are really starting to heat up. With the first round out of the way, let's get right into the quarter-finals."** The crowd cheered once again as Present Mic grabbed their attention.

**"Up next at bat, he's been putting on quite a show so far and it doesn't look like he's stopping anytime soon. Please give it up for the hero course's very own, Izuku Midoriya!"**

**"And his opponent. He made quite the upset in the first round, and it feels like we still haven't seen what he can really do. From the general studies course, Hitoshi Shinsou!"**

"Let the first match of the second round, begin!" Midnight announced with a wave of her whip.

"You know, I heard you were pretty strong. But after seeing your last match I get what all the hype is about." The purple haired boy said, using a similar tactic from his first match.

"It must be so nice, being born with a flashy strength augmentation quirk like yours. I bet people told you your entire life that you'd be a great hero." Shinsou continued on, only to receive no type of response from the boy standing before him. He faltered for a brief second as he remembered hearing that Midoriya was the quiet type. But it didn't matter, everyone usually responded after a few attempts at prodding.

_'I guess I was right. His quirk must require some type of verbal exchange to take a hold of me. That's why he's trying to get me to talk.'_ The quirk inheritor thought as he continued to stare down the general studies student.

"I wasn't so lucky, with my quirk people told me that I'm gonna end up as a villain. There were a lot of times that I wished that I was born quirkless. It probably would've been better."

The moment those words came out of Shinsou's mouth, something clicked inside of Midoriya's head. He couldn't believe that someone could say something like that so casually, like it was some sort of joke. If he was being honest, he was having a hard time wrapping his head around it. To say that you'd rather have been born quirkless as opposed to having a brainwashing quirk was just...ridiculous. His mind quickly flashed back to all of the torment that he had suffered before receiving 'One for All'. All of the mental and physical scars that he had to go through just because he was powerless. He couldn't even count how many times he cried himself to sleep at night wishing for a strong quirk like Shinsou's. And here this boy was, being ungrateful for the power that he had.

The quirk inheritor paused his mind for a moment before coming to a decision. He did plan on ending this match quickly once he confirmed Shinsou's quirk. But after hearing those disgusting words come out of his mouth, he decided to take the opportunity to prove a point. With no more hesitation, he quickly walked over to his opponent.

"Why won't you respond assho-" Just before Shinsou could finish his sentence, Midoriya had covered a sizable distance by lunging forward and delivering a forceful punch to the gut with his left hand. In the time it took the purple haired boy to process what had just happened, it was already too late. He felt his body being lifted up into the air moments before the feeling of concrete impacting his back brought him back to his senses.

"Hitoshi Shinsou is out of bounds, the winner is Izuku Midoriya!"

The moment Midnight's words reached his ears, Shinsou couldn't help but feel a wave of grief wash over his body. The sports festival was his only chance to make it into the hero course, and he blew it. He had hoped that by making a strong impression and standing out he could make a case for getting into the class. But none of that mattered now. He failed to stand out amongst the others and now the whole country watched him get easily defeated. If he was being honest, it was just unfair. He was up against someone with a strong quirk, someone he couldn't hope to beat in a fair fight. He lost this match before it even started.

"I get it." The green haired boy spoke, breaking the brainwash quirk user out of his thoughts.

"What?" Shinsou replied, looking up at the boy who just ended his dream.

"I get where you're coming from. You have a quirk that people would classify as villainous. But you know what, you should count yourself lucky that even have one."

"What are you talking about? Someone like you wouldn't understand. You were born with a power-"

"My quirk didn't manifest until a little over a year ago. Up until I was fourteen, I went my whole life thinking that I was quirkless. So the next time you want to complain about people thinking your quirk is villainous, try to consider those who don't even have one to begin with."

"Okay, and I'm supposed to believe something like that?"

"You don't have to believe anything that I tell you. But here's some advice. If you want to be a hero, maybe you stop moping around and start training."

"What?"

"Your quirk might be powerful, but I was able to figure it out after seeing it one time. If I were a villain, you'd be in deep trouble. To be honest, your body is pretty frail, most hero course students are in way better shape. If all you can do is depend on your quirk, and not work on improving other aspects of yourself as well. Then you'll never make it into the hero course. And for the record, I was able to take you down without using my quirk at all."

The quirk inheritor looked down at the confused expression on his opponent's face. He didn't know why he bothered saying those things to him, but maybe it was what the boy needed to hear.

"Just something to think about." He said before turning around and making his way back to the tunnel. Leaving the brainwash quirk user stunned.

* * *

"It appears as though Midoriya-san figured out how to counter Shinsou-san's quirk. That's pretty impressive considering we've only ever seen it once." Rin said with an impresses look on his face.

"Yeah." Kendou agreed with the scale quirk user. "I knew the guy was smart after he thought up that strategy for our group in the cavalry battle. But even I couldn't figure out how Shinsou-san's quirk worked, and I actually fought him."

"I wonder what they were talking about. Wonderboy's face looked a lot angrier than what we've seen so far."

"Well...I'm going to go ahead and assume that he's going to make it into the finals. Tokage-chan, Shiozaki-chan, you might want to start thinking up strategies to beat him now." Honenuki turned to look at his two classmates.

"We have to actually get there first Honenuki-kun. Besides, one of us has to deal with Todoroki before that. I'm pretty sure he'll win his next match as well."

"Damn, why does 1-A have so many overpowered douchebags in their class?" Tetsutetsu groaned.

"Those bastards think that it's all about the-"

"I'm not dealing with you anymore today Monama-san! Try and stay asleep this time." Kendou told the copy quirk user right after delivering another chop to back of his neck.

_'Still, Midoriya-san did figure out how to beat that guy. If we're being honest he's probably going to win the next one as well.'_

* * *

"Well, that went just about as expected." Nezu said as he took another sip of tea while sitting in his rather extravagant chair in the faculty viewing box.

"Yes, although young Shinsou's quirk is formidable, young Izuku's analytical skills were too much for him. I see he didn't even need to use 'One for All' to defeat him." Yagi responded, a slight grin on his sunken cheeks.

"Indeed. I know as the principal, I'm supposed to be impartial in matters such as this. But it looks like Midoriya-san and Todoroki-san are going to be our two finalists this year."

"I'm having a hard time disagreeing sir."

"It's almost poetic, is it not? The son of the number two hero going against the apprentice of the number one."

"I'm sure it will be quite the showing."

"So, how is your successor fairing in class Toshinori-kun?"

"His grades are phenomenal to my understanding. Overall he's only second behind young Yaoyorozu in terms of academics. However when it comes to heroics class, he has the highest grade so far."

"But…"

A long sigh came from the current number one hero before looking over to his boss. "But...he's not interacting well with his classmates at all. He's still rather "standoffish" and even though he was a big help in rescuing some of the other students at the USJ, they still seem to want to avoid him. The only student that I've seen him interact with outside of mandatory classwork was young Jiro. Even then it was only to borrow his math notes."

"Ah yes, they did go to the same middle school, correct?"

A nod was all the blonde man gave the 'high spec' user.

"Well, that is to be expected considering everything that he's been through. I'm inclined to step in to ensure that he learns how to interact with people his own age more. But I know with his situation these things take time. Hopefully we'll see some more progress soon."

"Yes, hopefully…."

* * *

**Author's Notes: Alright, let me just start off by saying that originally I had no intentions of making this chapter this long. At first I had the Midoriya vs Shinsou fight being way shorter than what it was, but once I sat down and started typing, that entire exchange pretty much wrote itself out. Hopefully you guys aren't too mad about it. Maybe I'll use it as a way to funnel Shinsou into the story later on, but right now I'm 50/50 on it.**

**1\. I'm going to try and wrap up the sports festival arc in the next 1.5 chapters and get into the internship part of the story after next chapter. To be honest, this part of the story took longer than what I had originally planned. It's pretty much served its puprose so far, but I want to make sure I end it on a good note. Plus I have a plan for the finals that I really want to write. But the story has been well received so far, so I guess I'm doing something right. The internship arc is really where the story starts to get off the ground, and I can't wait to get started on that. **

**2\. In this chapter we got a little more of the Midoriya backstory, a rather big piece of it in my opinion. Also I dropped some information and hints that will definitely be coming up in later chapters. But you guys will have to wait and see what they are. **

**3\. I've decided that Midoriya will not be using "Deku" for his hero name. With the theme of the story the way it is, it wouldn't really make sense for him to do that. I'm still juggling around options, but I'm not opposed to hearing suggestions from you guys. PM me or leave your suggestions in the reviews if you want. **

**Like always, thank you for reading and don't be afraid to drop a review. **


	7. Sports Festival: Finale

Following Midoriya's victory over Shinsou was the match between Iida and Tokoyami. Keeping up with apparent theme of all the battles so far, the match was over in a matter of seconds. Despite being quick on the draw to release 'dark shadow', Tokoyami's lack of close range combat ability proved to be his downfall as Iida used his engines to quickly push the raven headed student out of the ring. Securing the indigo haired teen a spot in the semi finals.

_'Iida-san's speed is his biggest asset. But from what I've seen from his quirk so far he can't maneuver very well when using his engines. He's also too straightforward in the way he goes about things. He'll probably try a similar tactic against me.'_

* * *

The next quarter-finals matched featured the two remaining students of 1-B putting on quite the show for the crowd. Using a similar tactic from her fight with Uraraka, Tokage split her body into as many pieces as she could and quickly swarmed the vine haired girl. But to the surprise of her classmate and everyone watching, Shiozaki managed to grab every last piece of Tokage's body with her vines. Forcing the vice-rep to submit in less than two minutes.

_'I remember Shiozaki-san saying that the more of her vines she uses the less control she has. But if that's what she calls limited ability, then she's more formidable than I thought.'_

* * *

With the final match of the quarter-finals, the result was no surprise to anyone. Todoroki once again overwhelmed his opponent by firing off a giant glacier at Ashido. The horned girl did what she could to melt away the ice with her quirk, but every time she put a dent in her frosty prison the heterochromatic student would just add another layer over that spot. Forcing her give up in less than a minute.

_'Although that attack wasn't as large as his first one, he's still sticking to only using his ice. From what I can tell, he needs to be in contact with the ground to use his quirk. I'll have to wait and see how he does in the next round before confirming that.'_

* * *

In a matter of minutes the two green haired girls from 1-B returned to their classmates. The both of them receiving praise for putting on a good show.

"You guys had a great match." Kendou said to her two classmates.

"She's right. You two were awesome out there. I'll admit it was a bit weird watching you guys go at it because none of us wanted to play favorites." Tetsutetsu agreed.

"It brought me shame to have to be pitted against one of my classmates. Tokage-san, I do hope that you can forgive me." Shiozaki gave an apologetic bow for having to defeat one of her own classmates.

"Hey, it is what it is. I lost fair and square. Shiozaki-chan, you're just too good. Those vines of yours are tougher than they look." The vice-rep waved off with a toothy grin.

"What we should be focusing on now is helping Shiozaki-san devise a strategy to take down Todoroki-san." Monama interjected after finally waking up. "We need to pool together our brain power and figure how she can defeat that 1-A scumbag."

"As weird as this is to say, I agree with Monama-san. Shiozaki-chan is the only one left in our class and we need to help her out as much we can." Kendou reluctantly said, catching more than few surprised gazes from the other students.

"Right!" Most of them agreed with a surprising amount of energy.

"Thank you, all of you. Having all of you as classmates is truly a blessing." The vine quirk user said with clasped hands. The sunlight shining down on her once again.

* * *

**"Alright listeners, it's time for the first match of the semi-finals!"**

**"First up, with a hero pedigree that would put most others to shame. He's a speed demon ready to sprint his way to victory. He's also the representative for the hero course's class 1-A. Make some noise for Tenya Iida!"**

_'Midoriya-san might be stronger than I am, but our speed is comparable. I can win this if I try to end it quickly. Tensei is watching so I need to make sure I put on a good show for him.'_ The engine quirk user thought as he entered the ring.

**"And his opponent. One of the breakout stars of Sports Festival so far, he's been making all of this look too easy. Give it up for the lean, mean, green machine, Izuku Midoriya!"**

_'Did he really just say "lean, mean, green machine"?'_ Kendou thoughts deadpanned after hearing the voice hero's introduction.

_'Iida-san is more than likely going to try and force me out of bounds before that speed boost of his runs out. Judging by his last match, he can't maneuver with the same speed that he can with a straight-on sprint. I'll wait to see what he does.'_

"Let the first match of the semi-finals, begin!" The R-Rated hero shouted with a wave of her whip.

Having already decided that a prolonged fight would not be to his advantage, Iida immediately activated his quirk at maximum power and sprinted towards Midoriya. The green haired boy watched as his class rep came flying towards him with ridiculous speed. Luckily for him, thanks to 'One for All' he was able to perceive things slightly faster than most people could.

As Midoriya reared his fist back to deliver a gut punch to the indigo haired boy, what happened next took him by surprise. Just a few meters before he could make contact, Iida jumped into the air and readied his right leg to deliver a devastating kick. Realizing that he was in a precarious position, the quirk inheritor moved his left hand in front of him as quickly as he could.

_'I've got you!'_ Iida thought as he swung his leg at the boy. But the moment he looked down at Midoriya, his eyes caught sight of the green haired boy's left hand positioned in a way that tucked his middle finger tucked behind his thumb. _'Oh n-'_

_'Nine percent, Delaware Smash!'_ The quirk inheritor screamed internally before delivering a low level air burst that sent the engine quirk user flying out of the other side of the ring. Surprising the majority of the crowd, whom barely had a chance to see what happened due to the sheer speed of both students.

"Tenya Iida is out of bounds. The winner is Izuku Midoriya!"

* * *

"Man, for a second there I thought that Iida had him beat." Tetsutetsu said with an annoyed scowl on his face.

"We saw how fast Wonderboy's reflexes were in the first round. Dodging a kick like that should've been just as easy." Tokage chimed.

"Well, it looks like Midoriya-san is going to finals." Kendou stated in a way that sounded as if she expected this to be outcome.

"Yeah, Shiozaki-san is going to have a lot on her plate dealing with him." Honenuki agreed.

* * *

As Midoriya made his way through the tunnel to head back to the 1-A booth. He was caught by surprise when he found himself standing face to face with Enji Todoroki, more commonly known as the Flame Hero: Endeavor. Seeing as this was the first time the quirk inheritor had even seen the man up close, he took a moment to realize just how intimidating the number two hero really was. If his large stature wasn't already enough, the steady streams of flames emanating from his costume sure did the trick.

"There you are boy." The flame hero said as he pointed a finger at the face of Midoriya. An action that immediately rubbed the verdant teen the wrong way. "I've been watching your matches, and I'll admit that I'm impressed. If we're talking about power alone, you're comparable to All Might."

Deciding to not respond to that claim, Midoriya only delivered a halfway curious look towards the red haired man. He knew that Endeavor had no knowledge of 'One for All', so there was no reason for him to take that thought seriously.

"You'll be going up against my son in the finals." The man continued. "It's his duty to surpass All Might, and going up against you will be a good benchmark for his training. So hit him hard, and don't disgrace him or yourself by hol-"

"I don't care." Midoriya cut the man off in a dry tone.

"What?"

"First of all, it's rude to point your finger at people." He said with a cold tone while moving the flame hero's hand out of his face. "Second, I don't care about whatever nonsense you have to say. Your son already told me about his training and your quirk marriage. To be honest, your dysfunctional family life isn't my problem."

Midoriya was fairly certain that reporters would pay top dollar for a picture of the astonished face that Endeavor gave him after his statement. After all, if word about any of that information got out to the public, it would more than ruin the career of the number two hero.

"But don't worry, I've already decided that I'm going to teach Todoroki-san a lesson during our fight." The verdant teen continued as he gave a polite bow before walking past the man. "Now if you excuse me sir, I have somewhere that I need to be."

All Endeavor could do was look back at the green haired child with the same dumbfounded gaze from before. Whoever this child was, he knew that he needed to keep a close eye on him.

_'I guess Endeavor really is just another one of them. Someone born with a strong quirk that thinks that they can do whatever they want because they're powerful. It's no wonder Todoroki-san turned out the way he did.'_

* * *

The last round of the semi-finals pitted Shiozaki against Todoroki. Just like before, the half-and-half user sent out a large wave of ice towards his opponent. But much to everyone's surprise, by using her vines as a springboard, Shiozaki managed to dodge the initial attack. The crowd held a collective breath for a second as they watched the girl from 1-B shoot out her vines towards Todoroki and wrap him up. But just as quickly as they latched onto their target, the green appendages were frozen in an instant and broken off. Allowing Todoroki to encase Shiozaki in an ice prison. Forcing her to submit.

_'I can't say that I'm surprised by the outcome. But Shiozaki-san definitely did better than what I had originally thought. And her vines seem stronger than they look. But I can worry about that later, I need to head down to waiting area to get ready for the final.'_

* * *

Following the match, Shiozaki quickly returned to the 1-B booth. Only to be swarmed by her classmates. Tsunotori even took it upon herself to give an apologetic hug to her vine haired companion.

"You did great Shiozaki-chan" The horned girl said with a somber tone.

"Yeah, you were awesome out there!" Tetsutetsu agreed.

"I greatly appreciate your kind words. But unfortunately Todoroki-san was just too powerful for me to overcome." The good hearted girl responded, admittedly she was a bit dispondent that she wasn't able to last longer than what she did.

"Well at least you can say that you lasted longer against him than anyone else." Kendou nearly echoed the girl's thoughts.

"Yeah, the pro's are going to be all over you." Tokage grinned as she put a hand on the girl's shoulder.

"I'm just grateful for the opportunity."

After a few minutes, the 1-B students all situated themselves for the upcoming match. Despite neither of them being in the finals, they were still curious as to what the outcome will be. More than a few of the boys in the back row were already taking bets on how things would play out.

"I can't say that we didn't expect this outcome." Tokage spoke up while throwing her arms back behind her head.

"You got that right." Kendou nodded in agreeance with the 'lizard tail splitter' user.

Tsuburaba leaned back onto his chair to ask his classmates what they thought. "So who do you think is going to win?"

"If I had to pick, I'd have to say that Midoriya-san is going to win it all." The orange haired girl responded.

"Can't argue with you there, but it should be more of an even fight than what we've seen so far." Honenuki chimed in.

"How do you think it's going to down? I mean, both of these guys have pretty much been "one-shotting" the competition."

Before anyone could speak up, Monama put in his two cents. "It's going to come down to who and/or what is faster."

"What do you mean?" Rin inquired to the copy quirk user.

"This fight is going to come down to which is quicker. Todoroki-san's ice, or Midoriya-san's speed. Besides that, I can't predict how this will turn out."

The students of 1-B paused for a second before concluding that the blonde haired boy was right. In that time, Kendou began going over what they had all seen so far from the two finalist. Based on the information that she had, Midoriya had the advantage in speed, strength and versatility. Despite both of the 1-A boys winning all of their matches in a matter of seconds, Midoriya showed a wider array of abilities while Todoroki simply used overwhelming force to win. She couldn't help but favor the green haired boy in this match.

"Either way, it's going to be good."

* * *

The crowd could hardly contain themselves as Midoriya and Todoroki made their way to the ring. The deafening screams and cheers could even be heard all the way from the other side of the school campus. Everyone watched the two boys with apt attention as the rumblings and wagers were in full swing. The students could even hear a few of the pro heros making phone calls to their agencies to put their internship offers in early in hopes of "beating the traffic". Despite all of the fanfare and howling, everyone was expecting this to be quite the showing.

**"Alright ladies and gentlemen, the moment we've all been waiting for. The final match of the U.A. Sports Festival!"**

**"First up, the iciest apple of Endeavor's eye. Shoto Todoroki!"**

**"And his opponent, so far his actions have definitely spoken louder that his words, Izuku Midoriya!"**

**"Both of these boys are considered the top dogs of hero course first years. And even though they've both been winning their matches rather easily, we're surely in for quite a show."**

Looking across the ring, Midoriya took note of the stoic glare that Todoroki was giving him. He had to admit, the heterochromatic teen definitely had the whole "cold intimidation" thing down to a science. But right now he wasn't concerned about that. Ever since their talk earlier he only had one thing on his mind.

"Todoroki-san, I'm going to ask you this one time. Are you going to use your fire or not?" He asked to his opponent. Gaining curious looks from both Todoroki and Midnight.

There was no response from the youngest Todoroki child.

"Fine, then out of respect I'll only use half of my power as well." Midoriya said, rather nonchalantly.

"Do you think this is some sort of joke, Midoriya?" Todoroki inquired.

"No, but you are."

Seeing as there was no sound system in the ring, no one but Midnight could hear the conversation going on between the two. The 'R-Rated Hero' looked at the boys and quickly noticed the intense aura that emanated from the both of them. Something even more amusing in her mind was the fact that this was the most that she's ever heard to two of them talk, ever. Realizing that everyone in the crowd was done waiting, she gave the signal for the match to commence.

"Let the final match, begin!"

Immediately, Todoroki fired off a wave of ice towards Midoriya. This time however, it almost mirrored the power that he displayed in the first round. The crowd looked stunned after witnessing the display of force that Todoroki was able to show. A brief silence fell over the stadium, many wondering if that was the end of it. But just before Todoroki could tell Midnight that he had won the match, Midoriya seemingly dropped out of the sky in front of the half-and-half user. His body glowing with the green electricity that everyone saw in the obstacle course.

Before Todoroki could react, the force of Midoriya upper cutting him in the chin took him by surprise. Just as his eyes caught up to what had happened, his vision was filled with the sight of the green haired boy seemingly floating in the air a few feet above him. Once again, Todoroki had no time to react before Midoriya delivered a punch to the top of boy's head, sending him on the ground and onto all fours. Things would only get worse from here for Todoroki as the force of Midoriya's leg impacted his sternum, sending him flying a few meters in the air. Because there wasn't any ground for him to activate his ice, he could only watch as Midoriya once again appeared right above him after jumping into the air. The verdant teen delivering a left jab to the boys chest that sent him flying back down to the ground.

What happened next shocked everyone who had managed to keep up with the assault that Midoriya had just committed against Todoroki. Just before the heterochromatic teen could fall out of bounds, he felt the fabric of his jacket constrict around his chest. Only to look up to see Midoriya holding him over the boundary line. Todoroki gave the boy a befuddled look just before being thrown right back into the center of the ring. A few not-so-subtle gasps coming from those in the crowd.

* * *

"What the hell?" Tsuburaba shouted after witnessing what just happened in the ring.

"D-did he just stop him from falling out of bounds?" Tokage looked around to everyone in booth to make sure that she wasn't just seeing things.

"What is he doing? He had the win."

"It appears as though Midoriya-san is trying to prove a point." Monama remarked, slightly unnerved by the display that Midoriya just put on for all to see.

Kendou's mind was running a mile a minute trying to rationalize the green haired boy's actions. Sure, Midoriya probably wasn't the nicest guy on planet Earth, but he never struck her as the type to beat on someone just for the heck of it. Especially after his previous matches where he ended things as quickly as he could. Something about this match, or maybe Todoroki himself, had compelled him to do that.

* * *

**"What's this? After putting a smackdown on Todoroki, Midoriya stopped him from falling out of the ring!"** The voice of Present Mic echoing everyone's thoughts.

"What's your game here Midoriya?" Todoroki looked to his opponent after propping himself up on one knee. Only to be met with silence, instead of an answer.

Not one to overlook an opportunity, the half-and-half user fired off another wave of ice at Midoriya, only for it to be quickly shot away with an air blast from the boy's left hand. He repeated this once again with a bigger attack, but from the opposite side. Only for the result to be same, another air blast destroying the oncoming pillar of ice.

Almost in the blink of an eye, Midoriya powered up his full cowling to nine percent and dashed up to Todoroki before delivering a jab to boy's right shoulder. Causing the him to fall back onto the ground.

* * *

From the 1-B section, more than a few of the students were growing uncomfortable watching how this match was playing out. With Tsunotori and Shoda already electing to look away from what was going on until it was over.

"Oh man, this fight is more one-sided than we thought." Kaibara said with a wincing facial expression, hoping to not see any more of this fight.

"For real, why is Wonderboy prolonging this? He could've already won it."

"I have no clue, but if this goes on they'll have to call the fight." Rin responded to Tokage, secretly hoping that they'll do just that.

* * *

"I'm sorry, were you expecting me to go easy on you because of your daddy issues?" The quirk inheritor said as he looked down at his opponent.

"What?" Todoroki looked up, with a pained grimace on his face.

"Y'know, there are a ton of kids out there who would kill to be where you are right now. And you're just wasting a spot in the hero course."

"What are yo-" Before the boy could finish his statement, the force of Midoriya's left leg impact with his right bicep stopped his thoughts. A very noticeable pain shooting up to his shoulder.

**"And Midoriya delivers another devastating blow to Todoroki. To be honest folks, I thought this was going to be more of an even fight."** The voice of Present Mic once again echoing the thoughts of the crowd.

Todoroki dropped his right hand to ground and released a pillar of ice right under Midoriya's feet in an attempt to put some distance in between the two of them. Hoping for a brief respite from the onslaught in order to by him some time to think of a strategy. Unfortunately he wouldn't get that chance because Midoriya managed to jump over the freezing barrier right as the attack was made. The moment Midoriya's feet hit the ground he shot off another _'Delaware Smash_' and shattered the protective wall that Todoroki managed to put in between the two of them.

As Todoroki looked at Midoriya across the ring, he was starting to wonder of the boy really was only using half of his power.

"I guess Endeavor raised another failure. Oh well." The quirk inheritor said with cold tone that his classmates were used to hearing from him.

For a brief few seconds, Todoroki felt something that he hadn't experienced in years. At this very moment, the heterochromatic teen couldn't help but feel overwhelmed. Everything he did was being countered almost effortlessly from what he could tell. And from the cold gaze that Midoriya was giving him, he could almost see that the green haired boy was barely trying. If Todoroki was being honest, that look infuriated him.

"If you're going to waste your time being half of a hero. Then you might a well give up and let someone else give it a try."

"What are you talking about?" The half-and-half user shouted to his opponent. Startling most of the students in the 1-A section. None of them being used to seeing the usually stoic boy so flustered.

"If you're only going to waste your time limiting yourself to half of your quirk. Then you don't deserve to be here with everyone else who is giving it all their got."

The stunned look on Todorki's face spoke more than words ever could at that moment. "Is that what this is about? Did my father put you up to this?"

Midoriya powered up his full cowling again and dash forward at Todoroki, dishing out a kick to the teen's right thigh. "I already told you, I don't care about your daddy issues. I just hate it when people take their quirks for granted." He said, taking in the stunned gaze Todoroki was now wearing on his face.

"Oh well, I'm over this. My mom's probably going to ground me for dragging this out anyway." He continued on in his cold, almost passive tone as he raised his left fist in the air. Sparks of electricity crackling over his forearm as he prepared to deliver what would surely be the final blow.

Just before he delivered the punch, Midoriya witness something flash in Todoroki's eyes. Half a second later, the temperature around them quickly shot up as a wave of bright orange flames erupted from the half-and-half user's body. Forcing Midoriya to jump back a few meters to avoid suffering any burns.

* * *

"Holy shit! Are those flames seriously that hot from all the way up here?" Awase shouted while shielding his face from the heat.

"I didn't even know he had a fire quirk." Kamakiri said with a look a pure shock.

"Well...he is Endeavor's son."

While everyone was enamored by the intensity of the flames that Todoroki managed to produce, Kendou's eyes locked onto Midoriya. The moment the wave of fire came forth, something clicked in her mind that she wasn't too sure about. _'Did he intentionally force him to use his flames? Is that why he's been dragging this out?'_

* * *

Midoriya couldn't help but stare in awe at the sheer power of the inferno coming from Todoroki's left side. He'll admit that he wasn't expecting the flames to be this intense, so looking at the heat dancing around the boy's body definitely caught him off guard.

_'I guess I really shouldn't be surprised that his flames are this strong. But he probably doesn't have the same level of control that he does with his ice.'_

"Midoriya." Todoroki said to him, a tear coming down his left eye.

"Don't blame me for what happens next."

In an instant, Todoroki erected a wall of ice behind him before letting out a powerful blast of flames in Midoriya's direction.

_'I still haven't been able to master this one yet, but if he's coming at me with his full power I might as well do the same.'_ The quirk inheritor thought to himself.

With almost no time to spare, Midoriya activated full cowling at eighteen percent and reared his left fist back to deliver the strongest attack that he could.

_'One for All: Full Cowling, 25% Texas Smash!'_ He shouted internally, before thrusting his fist forward. A powerful blast of air shooting from his hand.

The moment the two attacks met each other in the middle of the ring, an enormous blast of energy nearly blew away everyone in the stadium. A cloud of steam and smoke was all that anyone was able to see. All eyes in the stadium immediately shot back up to see the aftermath of such a powerful display.

**"Geez, Eraserhead what is up your class? What the heck just happened?"** Present Mic looked to his counterpart after picking himself up off the ground.

**"Todoroki rapidly cooled down the air around the ring and then immediately heated it back up, causing it to expand. On top of that, the wind pressure from the attack that Midoriya shot off created a wind funnel and spread out the energy over the entire stadium."** The groggy voice of Aizawa clarified to everyone in the audience.

**"Midnight, what's going on down there?"**

The R-Rated hero took a few seconds to let the smoke dissipate. After a moment, she looked to her right to see a giant hole in the ice wall that Todoroki created before letting off his final attack. And on the other side of it, was the unconscious form of Todoroki leaning up against the stadium wall. She then immediately looked to her left.

To her, and everyone else's, surprise Midoriya was still in the ring, holding onto his left arm and panting almost wildly. The crowd taking a moment to soak it all in before seeing that his right foot was planted inside the concrete in the ring floor.

_'He used his foot as an anchor to keep himself in bounds.'_ Kendou thought after picking herself up off the ground while still holding on to Tetsutetsu.

"S-Shoto Todoroki is out of bounds. The winner is Izuku Midoriya!" Midnight announced.

Immediately the crowd erupted into cheers, loud enough to cause others to cover their ears from the level of noise that everyone was producing.

* * *

"Man, these guy are way too damn strong." Kaibara groaned to everyone in the booth.

"Seriously, we should be lucky that no one got hurt in that nonsense."

"How the heck are we supposed to compete with that kind of power?"

"Come on guys, try not let any of that discourage you. All this means is that we just have to work hard and show those two up next year." Kendou attempted to reassure her classmates. Although if she was being honest, it more for her sake than anyone else's.

"Yeah, I guess you're right about that." A now distrottened Tetsutetsu weakly agreed.

* * *

Following the closing ceremony of the Sports Festival Kendou, Tokage, Tetsutetsu and Shiozaki were all walking together to the buses that would take them back to the main campus. Just as the students turned onto the next hall, the group came almost face to face with Midoriya. The new champion was still in his gym uniform from earlier while wearing the first place medal he had received about twenty minutes ago. But for some reason had a bandage covering his left arm. Something that Kendou took a mental note of, mainly because she couldn't remember the boy taking any serious hits during the final match.

"Hey, Wonderboy!" Tokage called out to quirk inheritor. "Congrats on your win."

The green haired student didn't bother responding before continuing his way down the hall and turning is back to the 1-B students.

_'I guess we're back to this again.'_ Kendou thought, watching the boy begin to walk away.

"Hey asshole, she just congratulated you! The least you can do is say thank you." The steel quirk user shouted with obvious annoyance in his voice.

"Just leave it alone Tetsute-" Kendou started to say before a deep voice cut her off.

"Young Izuku. It's rude not to show appreciation for such kind words. Am I wrong?" The group looked to their left to see a tall blonde man with hollow looking eyes and sunken cheeks coming from the same direction as the verdant teen. As Kendou took in the sight of the man she had this strange feeling that she had met him before. She couldn't really put her finger on it, but something about the way he looked seemed familiar.

The quirk inheritor adopted a somewhat indignant look on his face before turning around and walking up the four hero course students. He straightened himself up and gave a polite bow to all of them before speaking.

"Thank you for the kind words, Tokage-san. I apologize to you all for my rudeness." He said in the same dry and cold tone that Kendou was used to hearing from him. One that hardly sounded apologetic.

"Hey, don't worry about it. You're probably just tired from the tournament." The orange haired girl waved off, hoping to diffuse any more tension that what was already there.

Without another word the two men continued their way down the hall, leaving the three girls, plus one Tetsutetsu, to make their way back to the buses.

"Man, you'd think after teaming up with you guys he'd be a little nicer." Tetsutetsu huffed while making no effort in hiding the annoyed scowl on his face.

"Something seemed to be troubling him." Shiozaki stated, gaining a weird look from both Tokage and Tetsutetsu.

"I wouldn't worry too much about it. The guys in 1-A said that he doesn't really talk to people unless he has to. We honestly should've expected something like that to happen."

"Yeah, you're right. But enough about that, I just can't wait to get back home and relax. I still can't believe we all have the rest of week off. I'm totally going to veg-out until monday." Tokage beamed.

"Well, I can't argue with you there." Kendou agreed.

* * *

**Author's Notes: So yeah, I decided to burn through the rest of the sports festival in one go. I didn't really see a point in making it two chapters long so I just turned it into one. Especially since the only real "major event" was the Midoriya vs Todoroki final. I've been trying to improve how I write out fight scenes, so I hope you guys enjoyed this one.**

**1\. Let me clarify now that Midoriya is in no way, shape or form OP in this story. There will be plenty of times where he gets his ass handed to him. One of those times is coming up very soon. I only realized after coming this far in the story that very few students can actually handle Midoriya with how powerful he is in this story so far...well when they are alone at least. So don't worry, he is not unbeatable by any means. **

**2\. Next chapter is going to be a bit of a "break" in between the Sports Festival and Internship Arcs. And it's pretty much going to be a Kendou-centric chapter, with a little bit of Midoriya towards the end. Essentially it's going to be "fluff" mixed with a bit of back story. And I'm going to introduce a couple of OC's that play a significant role in the story. One of them is character that I think you guys will really like. **

**3\. For the final I wanted to mix elements of the Midoriya vs Todoroki fight along with elements from the Bakugou vs Todoroki fight. I'll admit that my execution wasn't perfect but I think I got the point across of what I wanted to convey as far as the mindset of Midoriya right now. Plus, I really enjoy writing out fights scenes, especially one's from multiple perspectives at once. **

**4\. I guess Shiozaki is going to be a part of the Kendou-squad seeing as she just keeps finding a way to be in the story. Oh well, there are worse characters I could've gone with. She's a fun character to write so I guess we'll be seeing more of her than I originally intended. **

**Like always, thank you guys for reading and don't be afraid to drop a review. I love hearing your guy's thoughts and my stories and they help me improve things as I go along as well. **


	8. A Day In Musutafu

The day after the Sports Festival was meant to serve as time for Kendou to kick back, relax and unwind after a long and exhausting day of trying to prove herself to the pros. At least that's what is was suppose to be until her father woke her up early this morning and told her that he needed her to run some errands for him. On any other day she would've tried her best to get out of doing extra chores so that she could maximize the amount of sleep she could get. But today was a special occasion. Seeing as it was her parent's anniversary and all.

The heroine in training was currently sitting on an early morning train bound for the city of Musutafu. Her mission for the day was simple, head over to the flower shop that her father ordered an arrangement from for her mom, and get back before she came home from work. Before she left, Kendou had asked her father why she had to go all the way to Musutafu for flowers when there were more than enough places near Chiba. His response was that this specific place, the "Yamanaka Flower Shop", was the only one nearby with his wife's favorite flowers available.

Although the train ride was smooth, Kendou found it slightly...weird. On the television monitors inside of the cabin, they were replaying the highlights from yesterday's event. The orange haired girl would admit that it felt a bit odd watching the footage of her and her team during the cavalry battle on the screen right in front her. Or her quick defeat and the hands of Shinsou during the tournament stage. But even then, most of the attention was focused on Midoriya, which made sense seeing as he was the victor. She knew that once they got back to school on Monday that the students would find out whether or not they got any internship offers from the pros. And it was a pretty safe assumption that a certain green haired boy would probably receive the bulk of the requests. Hell, even in her own class she would bet that Shiozaki had a ton of offers seeing as she tied for third place. For a few minutes, Kendou couldn't help but wonder if she even got a single offer since she didn't stand out all that much during the entire event.

About twenty-five minutes after getting off the train, Kendou found herself standing in front of the flower shop. It was a rather nice looking place from what she could tell. A large yellow building with an array of what looked to be exotic plants decorating the walls near the entrance. It was no wonder why her dad wanted her to come all the way out here. When she finally entered the building, she was met with a sight similar to the one outside. Except on the interior of the building were a multitude of even more extravagant looking flowers lining the walls and main lobby. Kendou wondered if the owners had some type of plant related quirk they used to help with their business.

"Welcome to the Yamanaka Flower Shop. How may we help you?" A female voice caught the girl's attention. Kendou looked to her right where the counter was to see an older woman, about her mom's age, with very long light blonde hair and sea-green eyes. The woman giving her a welcoming smile.

"Yes, I'm here for a pick up. It should be under the name, 'Daisuke Kendou'." The girl said as she pulled the receipt her father gave her from out of her wallet, handing it to woman.

"Ah yes, your father called a little while ago to let us know that you'd be coming. Let me just grab the arrangement from the back."

The woman quickly disappeared to the far end of the shop for a few minutes before returning with a bouquet of teal and yellow flowers that was honestly bigger than what Kendou had been expecting. Then again, her father did have a habit of going overboard when it came to romantic gestures like this.

"Thank you very much." The orange haired girl said to the older woman as she grabbed the bouquet.

"It was our pleasure."

"Have a nice day." She waved before heading for the door.

"Uh, excuse me. Before you go, do you mind if I ask you a question?" The woman said.

"Um, sure."

"You wouldn't happen to go to U.A. would you?" She asked, catching Kendou a bit off guard. The girl had honestly not expected anyone to recognize her, especially since she didn't get that far in the tournament.

"I do actually."

"I knew it! I thought I recognized you from the Sports Festival. You made it to the tournament stage if I remember correctly."

"Oh...yeah. But I didn't do so great, I got knocked out in the first round."

"Actually now that I think about it, you were teamed up with Midoriya-kun in the cavalry battle weren't you?"

_'Midoriya-kun? That's a first.'_ The girl thought after hearing the green haired boy's name with this rather uncommon honorific attached to it.

"You know Midoriya-san?"

"Of course I do. He used to come help me move supplies here all the time. And he was classmates with my daughter."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Hey Rayet, get out here! One of Midoriya-kun's friends is here!" The woman called out to the back of store in with an excited voice. It didn't even register in the 'big fist' quirk user's mind that she was referred to as his "friend".

"Really? Give me a second." A younger sounding female voice responded.

Just then, a curious thought crossed Kendou's mind. _'Wait, Rayet…like Rayet Yamanaka?'_ It took her a second, but she definitely recognized the name. She couldn't exactly remember from where though.

Before the orange haired girl's thoughts could ponder about it any further, the person in question came out came out from the back of the store. When she laid eyes on her Kendou was met with sight of a girl about her age. She also had light blonde hair, albeit a bit shorter than the older woman's, and obsidian colored eyes. However, the most intriguing thing about the girl was that she strolled up to front counter in a wheelchair decorated with all sorts of flower themed pictures on the railings.

"Hello, are you really one of Midoriya-kun's friends?" The girl known as Rayet asked with an excited grin on her face.

"I-I wouldn't say all that." Kendou waved off awkwardly. "We've only ever spoken a handful of times. The only time we've really interacted was during the Sports Festival."

"Oh, I see. That's a shame, I was really hoping that he managed to actually make some friends at U.A.." She replied in a more somber tone. Something Kendou quickly picked up on.

"So you went to middle school with him?"

"Yeah, he used to be a classmate of mine."

"Were you guys friends?"

"Unfortunately, no." The blonde haired girl sighed. "He used to come by here all the time and help my mom with moving stuff that was too heavy for her to lift. I tried hanging out with him a few times but he was always too busy with training or whatever, plus he wasn't really the type to socialize."

"I can definitely see that being the case."

"So I take it that he's still a loner, even at U.A.?"

"From what I've heard, yeah."

"Well that's too bad. It sucks when sweet guys like that are lonely all the time."

"I don't think I would classify him as "sweet"." Kendou air-quoted with her free hand.

"Yeah, I can understand why not. But he's honestly a great guy. He use to protect me from bullies all the time during middle school."

"Are you serious? Was it because of…?" Kendou started to say as she looked down at the wheelchair, catching herself before finishing her sentence. Even though it wasn't something you could ignore, it still felt rude to her to point out.

"Partially, most of it was because I'm quirkless though." Rayet said with a straight face.

"Oh...I see." She replied while awkwardly looking away from the wheelchair bound girl.

Quirkless people were a rarity nowadays, especially among the younger generations. In fact, Kendou couldn't recall ever meeting someone who didn't have a quirk, at least not to her knowledge. Even though roughly one-fifth of the world's population was quirkless, in Japan that number was closer to three percent as opposed to other countries. Even then it was no secret that society as whole treated them as second class citizens. Kendou immediately felt bad for the girl across from her. Not only was she in a wheelchair, but she was essentially powerless as well. Sure having a quirk wasn't everything, but considering how nasty people could get she undoubtedly had hard time.

"Yeah, it was rough back then. But Midoriya-kun use to always keep those guys away from me. He never even used his quirk so he wouldn't get in trouble. I was honestly surprised when I saw him on TV using his power like that. I had no idea that he was that strong." The blonde girl said with a significantly more cheery tone than a few seconds ago.

"Well, you can't argue that."

"Yeah...hey, Kendou-san was it? Can I ask a favor of you?" Rayet asked the girl, receiving a nod from Kendou. "Would you mind giving him my phone number for me the next time that you run into him? After seeing him on TV my mom wanted to invite him over. But I lost his number after I changed phones and he doesn't have any social media profiles. If you don't want to I completely understand."

"Y-yeah, sure. I wouldn't mind at all." The oranged girl agreed, much to her own surprise.

"Really? Thank you, I greatly appreciate it." Rayet beamed before putting her contact info into Kendou's phone. "Well anyways, sorry for holding you up. You have a wonderful day."

"Yes, you as well."

"Come back anytime!" The older Yamanaka woman yelled out as Kendou made her way through the shop doors, giving off a polite wave.

* * *

Following her trip to the flower shop, Kendou still had some time kill to before her next train arrived to take her back home. So she decided to use the extra hour to check out a place that she had always wanted to visit, Dagobah Beach. She had heard about this place a few times growing up, especially since it was where her parents had their first date. At one point Kendou asked them why they never took the time to come out here as a family. But her parents had told her that over the years this entire area of coastline became a junkyard after people began dumping their trash out here. She had heard that the beach had been cleaned up and restored to its former glory not too long ago and wanted to see it for herself. And man, was she glad that she did.

By the time she arrived to the beach, she was more than impressed. The view alone was something that you would see on some fancy postcard. On top of that, the scent of the clean ocean air was more than pleasant to her nose. If this place looked half as good back then as it did today then she could see why her mom decided to bring her dad all the way out here. _'Man, this place is amazing.'_

"Have you come to enjoy the view as well young lady?" A voice to her right caught Kendou's attention. She looked in that direction to see an elderly couple making their way towards her. It was a man with blonde hair and blue eyes that had some strange markings on his face that sort of resembled cat whiskers. On his arm was a woman with indigo hair and greyish eyes holding onto him.

"Kind of, sir. I was just passing by. I heard this place got cleaned up not too long ago, so I wanted to check it out." Kendou responded in a polite tone of voice.

"Well that's nice to hear. The beach is quite beautiful this time of the year."

"Yeah, so how long ago did the beach get cleaned up? My parents said that they use to come here for dates all the time. But the place ended up becoming a dump."

"A little over a year ago."

"Cool, it's nice that the city finally took the time to fix this place up. I saw pictures of how it used to look and this is definitely an improvement."

"Believe it or not, it wasn't the city that cleaned the beach up. It was actually a couple of people." The older woman replied.

"Really, like a group of people just cleaned the beach up voluntarily?"

"No, it was only two." The indigo haired woman stated in matter-of-fact voice.

Kendou's eyes widened at the woman's words. Truth be told, she was having a hard time believing something like that. Two people cleaning up this entire beach by themselves was almost impossible. Even if they did use their quirks to get rid of the garbage, from the photos that she had seen of the area before it would've taken months for them to get it anywhere near this pristine. There was no way that this woman was telling the truth.

"Yes. We've been taking our early morning walks along this route for years now. About two years ago we started noticing two men that would come out here early in the morning almost everyday and move trash between here and the city dump." The man chimed in. Stating this information as if it were common knowledge.

"That's amazing! Do you know who they were? They deserve some kind of reward for that."

"We never got a chance to get their names, mainly because they would be finishing up right around the time we would walk by. All I remember is that one of them was young, fit looking green haired boy with freckles. The other was a rather skinny looking blonde man."

You could almost hear the record scratch in Kendou's mind at the description the man gave. _'Green hair...freckles...there's no way. It couldn't be.'_ She waved the thought off just as quickly as it came. _'But a skinny looking blonde man too?'_ Her mind immediately going back to the hallway after the sports festival, and that curious looking gentleman that was with Midoriya. She never did get a chance to ask that man who he was and why he was with the green haired boy. At the time she just assumed that he was probably just some random staff member or something.

"W-wow, they sound like some really selfless people." The orange haired teen said after shaking the thoughts out of her head.

"I agree. Well, we ought to be on our way now. Sorry for holding you up young lady. Have a wonderful day, and enjoy your date." The man said with a polite bow before the two of them walked off.

"My wha-?" Kendou began to say before looking down at her left hand to see that she was still holding the bouquet that she had picked up for her dad. _'Oh right, the flowers. I should hurry back home and give these to dad. Mom should be back in a couple of hours.'_

With that, the heroine in training made her way over to the station and got aboard her train to make the journey back home. However, during the ride Kendou couldn't help her mind piecing together something that it probably had no business doing anyway.

_'It's too much of a coincidence.'_ She thought while scrolling through her phone._ 'Especially after what that older couple said earlier. Plus, Yamanaka-san did mention that he was always busy doing some type of training.'_ She continued processing the information that she heard. Considering that Midoriya did have a strength augmentation quirk, it wasn't totally unreasonable to think that any training to get into U.A. would involve something along the lines of hauling heavy piles of garbage across a beach. In actuality it sounded like the type of task that would definitely get you in shape if you didn't end up breaking a few bones along the way.

_'I know this is probably a bad idea, but I should try and ask him about it on Monday. Just to be sure. At least I have a reason to talk to him.'_ She thought, looking at the newest contact in her phone. Although Kendou typically wasn't one to get into other people's business, her curiosity was more than peaked. And even though she definitely found it strange that the topic of Midoriya came up so much in one morning, the possible information that she gained today was more than enough to warrant trying to have a conversation with him about it. Well, "trying" being the key word in that sentence.

'_Man, what a heck of a morning.'_ She said to herself internally before putting her headphones in and throwing her head back. Letting the sound of her music take over her mind so that she could relax for the rest of the train ride.

* * *

_"Hey! Hey, kid! Can you hear me!"_ A frantic voice shouted.

_"Oh my god!"_ Another one yelled, this one a lot more feminine than the last

_"Quick, one of you call an ambulance!"_

_"I-I'm on it!"_ Someone else said in response.

_"Hey kid, come on stay with me!"_

_"Shit! What do we do? He's lost so much blood!"_

_"I don't know, but we need to do something!"_

_"I got through, the ambulance is on it's wa-"_

"Shit!" Midoriya shouted, launching himself up from his bed. The boy's eyes darted around the room, looking to see where he was. His breath was unsteady and his mouth was dry. It only took a few seconds for him to notice to excessive amount of sweat covering his entire body. Realizing that it was just another nightmare, he quickly calmed himself down before throwing his feet over the side of the bed. After a minute or two he looked over to his nightstand at his alarm clock, only to notice that it was well after noon. Panicking for a moment before remembering that he had the next couple of days off from school, so he didn't need to worry about being late.

Just before his mind could wonder somewhere else, the smell coming from outside the door let him know that he was indeed starving. He may have missed breakfast, but definitely wasn't about to miss lunch as well. He wasted almost no time in throwing on his shirt and making his way to the kitchen.

* * *

"Oh Izuku, you're finally awake." Inko said, watching her son trudge through their apartment. Looking almost ragged as he made his way over to the fridge before fishing out a bottle of water. She knew that anytime he looked like this in the morning, or afternoon in this case, that he had experienced another nightmare. But despite her motherly concern wanting to override her thinking, she knew that forcing him to talk about wouldn't do any good. She just needed to wait for him to open up about it.

"Yeah, sorry for sleeping in like that but I'm still exhausted from yesterday." He responded in a dry, groggy tone.

"Well you did overdo it with your quirk. Especially in that last match. Y'know, I still don't know how to feel about you dragging the fight on like that. I get that you were trying to help that boy, but beating him up like that was a bit too far."

"I know, honestly...it just seemed like the best option at the time." He gave an awkward chuckle while rubbing the back of his head. He knew that watching the final yesterday nearly gave the woman a heart attack. But in his mind, he did what he needed to do to get his point across.

"Well...as long as I don't have to worry about it happening again I'll let it slide this time."

"Thanks mom."

"Oh, by the way. You have a package for you on the living room table." The green haired woman pointed in that direction.

"Really?" Midoriya turned his head to see a small black and silver box sitting on the table. He definitely found it odd. He hardly ever got mail unless it was something that he ordered online, which was a very seldom occurrence in of itself.

"Yes, a short, blonde haired woman dropped it off earlier this morning and said that it was special delivery from some hero in Shimane. I still don't know a lot about this hero business, but I assume that if they went through all the trouble of bringing it here then it must be important."

"I'll go take a look at it in my room."

"Fine, once you're done with that there's food in the microwave."

"Thanks."

* * *

Midoriya walked into his room and immediately sat down at his desk to inspect the black and silver package. Looking at the outside of it, there wasn't anything that could give the green haired boy a clue as to who or where it came from. Deciding that just looking at it wasn't going to get him any closer to an answer, he cracked the seal and opened the package only to find the contents of this mystery box a bit...lackluster. Inside of it were two things, a small card and what looked to be newer type of holoprojector.

The first thing he inspected was the card. What was strange was that there was nothing on it but an address to somewhere in Shimane. He elected to look it up later and quickly moved on to the holoprojector. He inspected it for a few seconds before setting on down in front of him and pressed the power button. _'Okay, let's see what this is all about.'_

The moment the screen popped up, Midoriya was met with the image of a man in what appeared to be a hero costume. It had a black base layer with what looked like burgundy armor plating across the chest and shoulders. On his head was a similar looking mask that covered the entirety of his head. Just when Midoriya was about to get a thought out, the man on the screen began speaking.

_"Greetings, Izuku Midoriya. Allow me to introduce myself, I am Yuuto Heruzo. You may not have heard of me but I am the pro hero 'Siphon'. I apologize for any inconvenience that this message may have given you. But after your performance at the U.A. Sports Festival, I decided to send you this holoprojector directly in case my offer got lost with the many others that I am sure you have received."_

_'Offers? Is he talking about the internships?'_ He thought, right before the man continued.

_"I'm not one to waste words, so let's get straight to the point. I am sending you this message because I would like for you to accept my offer for your upcoming school internship. Although there are no doubt many other more popular heroes that have extended their hands to you I'm certain that you would find my proposal to be the best choice."_

_'Okay, so he's pretty much just some low level hero trying to get me to pick him. I don't see the point in going through all this trouble though.'_

_"The reason being, is that I am aware of the truth behind the nature of your quirk."_ The pro hero now identified as "Siphon" stated in a rather ominous tone.

'"...Wait...what?!" Midoriya half shouted once the projection's words finally registered in his mind.

_"For obvious reason I'm not going to go into detail about it, or my knowledge concerning your abilities over this message. But I would like to meet you personally some time before you make your choice. There should be a card with an address that came along with the case that the holoprojector came in. Drop by anytime before 8:00 pm whenever you're available. And feel free to bring your "teacher", if you so desire. I look forward to meeting you."_ As soon as the man finished speaking, the projection cut off. Leaving Midoriya with his mind immediately going into overdrive.

_'There's no way. There's no way that this guy should know about 'One for All'. Oh man, I need to call Toshinori-san right now. Maybe him or Sorahiko-san will know something about this guy? I've never even heard of him before. Dammit where's my phone? Oh man, it's way too early for this.'_ The boy thought as he scrambled across his room for the mobile device. Needless to say, this is not how he expected to start off his weekend.

* * *

**Author's Notes: Wow, this story has barely been out for two weeks and it already has 250 followers and over 150 favorites. You guys sure know how to motivate someone to keep on writing. Thank you all for the attention. So yeah, this was pretty much a bridge chapter. The internship arc officially starts next chapter, but I thought I'd take advantage of the time off that the student got after the Sports Festival in cannon to build some more back story.**

**1\. The characters that I introduced in this chapter will be playing a pretty major role in the story later on. So I'm setting up their plot points now. I typically try not to go overboard with the OC's, so only expect to see a few of them. Like four or five at the most.**

**2\. Someone in the reviews asked me when the story will wrap up. Right now I have it ending a little after the "Joint Training Arc", but my plans pretty much always fall through so we'll see what happens. However, I can tell you guys that the "romance" part of this story will be picking up very soon.**

**3\. Yes, there were several shameless Naruto references in this chapter and I don't feel bad about them. I have a habit of plugging my favorite anime/comic characters into my stories. So expect that to happen a few more times. **

**Like always, thanks for reading and don't be afraid to leave a review.**


	9. Internships: Part 1

For the first years students of U.A.'s hero course, Monday couldn't come fast enough. After a nice relaxing weekend they were refreshed, recharged and ready to get started on their possible internships. Well, everyone except for Midoriya. He had barely gotten any sleep since Thursday on account of doing as much research as he could on the alleged pro hero, Siphon. And what he found out about the man in question was definitely...interesting, to say the least.

Between him, Sorahiko and Tsukauchi they were able to piece together quite the profile on the masked man. Not only was he truly a pro hero, but from what they were able to find they learned that he is fourth amongst active heros for most cases resolved in the last year. Which would put him above the fifth ranked hero Edgeshot. Besides that, a few other curious things popped up in their searches. One thing being the four year gap in between him graduating from Shiketsu and reappearing on the hero scene. Or the testimonies from civilians that were present during his appearances. More than a few of them claiming to have experienced a considerable level of fatigue after his arrival.

Overall, Midoriya's curiosity about the man had been peaked. The guy was a mystery who obviously prefered to stay out of the spotlight for some reason. Then there was his apparent knowledge of 'One for All' that was still a concern for the boy. More so for his two teachers who took the time this weekend to scout out the address that he was given. He planned on heading over to Shimane right after school was done to meet with the man in question, so no doubt he would find answers to whatever was going on.

But before the quirk inheritor could ponder over the issue further, the voice of his homeroom teacher caught his attention. That and the giant stack of papers that was thrown onto his desk by Bakugou, who looked more annoyed than usual today. He looked back up to finally tune in on what was going on only to see something that definitely threw him for a loop_._

_Internship Offers (Class 1-A):_

_Todoroki - 5,017_

_Midoriya - 4,526_

_Yaoyorozu - 350_

_Iida - 347_

_Tokoyami - 320_

_Bakugou - 295_

_Kirishima - 117_

_Uraraka - 85_

_Kaminari - 17_

"In past years it's been more spread out. But there's a pretty big gap this time around." The groggy voice of Aizawa stated while still holding on to the remote to the projector.

"Ugh...that's so not fair." Kaminari groaned, throwing his head back in defeat.

"A gap? More like a trench." Sero deadpanned at the sight.

"Todoroki got the most ahead of Midoriya?" Jiro questioned while looking over to the green haired boy.

"Yeah, it's the exact of opposite of how they placed in the finals." Kirishima responded.

"I guess Midoriya scared a few of them off after the final match. Honestly, I can't really blame them."

"Still, they could've left some offers on the table for the rest of us." The whining voice of Ashido chimed in after seeing that she didn't get a single offer.

Midoriya tuned out his classmates as he sifted through the stack of papers in front of him that had the list of his internship offers. While sorting through the thousands of names and agencies a few things of note came mind. The first being that the number two hero Endeavor had sent him a request. Which the green haired boy was definitely not expecting seeing as he essentially blew off the flame hero after their brief conversation at the Sports Festival. Another name that stuck out to him was Siphon's, which he already knew was on the list but was still surprised none the less. Despite that, a certain lack of one name caught his attention. The "Nighteye Hero Agency" wasn't amongst his requests.

He had met the lanky, green haired man once before. Actually, calling it a meeting was a bit of an overstatement. It was during one of his training sessions a couple months after receiving 'One for All'. Nighteye had only watched Midoriya train for about twenty minutes, frowning the entire time, before departing without a word. He later heard from All Might that the pro hero hadn't been extremely impressed, but he didn't said anything negative about him either. Before he could think any further about it, Aizawa's voice brought him back to reality.

"Despite these results, you'll all be interning with pros. All of you who got offers have until tomorrow to decide where you want to go. The rest of you will be assigned a pro hero and you'll be notified in the morning." The nocturnal hero informed his students. More than a few of them smiling that they were still getting a chance to do the internship.

"Awsome!"

"Now, onto the next order of business. You all have to pick out hero names."

* * *

"Man, best day of class ever!" Tokage beamed as the students of 1-B made their way out of the classroom to head to the cafeteria. Feeling quite proud of herself.

"I'll say, I still can't believe that Ibara got over two thousand offers. I'm getting a headache just thinking about having to sort through all of that." Kendou said with a light chuckle.

"Yes, it will be difficult having to decide. But I'm just thankful for the recognition." The vine haired girl responded.

"Still, I'm kind of jealous. You and "Lizardy" over here both got over a thousand offers."

"Hey, 117 offers is nothing to sneeze at Tetsutetsu. At least you got more than Honenuki-kun."

"I guess." The steel quirk user agreed, but still not entirely satisfied with himself. "So have you decided who you're going to intern with Kendou?"

"Yeah, I'm thinking about going with Uwabami."

"Really?" The other three students looked at her with curious faces.

"You mean that super flashy lady in Shimane with the snakes on her head? Isn't she more of a capture specialist? I'd thought you'd go with someone more like Gunhead." Tokage questioned.

"That's exactly why I want to do the internship with her. A hero can't just be a one-trick pony, and she does have the second highest arrest record in the last six months."

"I guess that makes sense." Tetsutetsu agreed.

While the four of them made their way down the hall, the group walked passed room 1-A just as their class was leaving. Right before making it to the door, Kendou spotted a familiar mop of green hair walking alone. Deciding that this was probably going to be her only good chance to talk to the boy, she turned towards her friends with an apologetic smile.

"Hey, I'll catch up to you guys in a bit. I have to go take care of something." She told the three of them.

"Sure, no problem. We'll save you a seat." Tokage waved off right before the orange haired girl picked up her walking speed.

She managed to bob and weave through the growing crowd of students on the hallway before ending up only a few meters away from the verdant teen.

"Hey, Midoriya-san!" She half shouted, loud enough to catch his attention but not so much as to draw attention to herself.

The quirk inheritor turned around at hearing his name, locking eyes with the 'big fist' user. His gaze just as cold and uninterested as it usually was. Stopping in his tracks as he watched the girl approach him.

"Hey, do you have a minute? I need to talk to you about something, and it's kind of important." She asked, her face letting him know that she was telling the truth.

Normally the quirk inheritor would've just ignored her and continued making his way to the cafeteria to grab his lunch. But he quickly remembered Yagi and his mother getting on his case about being rude to his classmates. And the last thing that he needed today was word of him blowing someone else off getting back to either of them. "Okay, what is it?"

"You mind if we go somewhere a bit more private first?"

"S-sure." He agreed, a slightly curious look forming on his face.

Unbeknownst to the two teens, the students of class 1-A who just so happened to be nearby were watching them walk away with peaked interest. For most of them, it was their first time seeing the boy not outright ignore another student.

"Oh, so he can take the time to talk to students in other classes, but can't give any of us the time of day?" Ojiro said with an annoyed scowl on his face as he watched Kendou and Midoriya walk off.

"I wouldn't worry about it, Ojiro-kun." Hagakure responded with a hand on the tailed boy's shoulder.

"I wonder what Kendou wanted to talk about though. She did say that it was important." Ashido wondered out loud.

"Who cares? It's not like he'd tell us anyway."

_'Damn that Midoriya! Getting the attention of girls from other classes. Why do ladies always have to go for the silent assholes?'_ A certain student with purple balls on his head internally fumed after seeing his classmate walk off with a cute girl.

* * *

A couple of minutes later, the two students found themselves on one of the hallways leading to the auditorium. Midoriya was starting to grow a bit concerned as to why the class rep of 1-B had lead him here or what she needed to discuss.

"So, what did you want to talk about?" He asked, his stoic tone still enough to irritate the orange haired girl a bit.

"First things first, here you go." She said as she pulled a piece of paper out of her skirt pocket and handed it to the boy. Midoriya looked at it for a second before glancing up at her with a confused scowl. "Before you get any strange ideas, it's not mine. It's Rayet Yamanaka's."

He blinked a couple of times once those words hit him. Now that was a certainly something that he wasn't expecting to hear. It had been quite a while since he interacted with the blonde haired girl. And he was curious as to why exactly the girl from 1-B of all people was giving him her number.

"I had to go to their flower shop this weekend and the topic of "you" came up in conversation. She asked me to give that to you and to tell you that her mom wanted to invite you over some time." Kendou clarified.

"I see. W-well, thank you Kendou-san." The boy said before taking the piece of paper from her hand and giving a polite bow.

Just then, Midoriya straightened himself out and began making his way to exit the hall. But not before Kendou's words caught his attention once more.

"Actually there's one more thing that I wanted to talk to you about." She said with a somewhat shaky voice, causing the green haired boy to turn around. "Now this is going to sound weird, but I gotta know. You were the one who cleaned up Dagobah Beach, weren't you?"

The moment she said that, Midoriya's eyes blew open, almost betraying his usually cold glance. "H-how did you-"

"I ran into an older couple while I was there. They told me that a boy with green hair and freckles use to go there in the mornings and clean the place up. Last time I checked, not a lot of people matched that description. And with your quirk it made a lot of sense." She clarified to him once again, secretly hoping that she wasn't coming off as stalker to the 1-A student.

"Y-yes...it was m-me." The boy admitted, reluctantly. Cursing himself the second that the admission came of out mouth. Despite everything that he had been through, Midoriya still found it difficult to lie to people, especially to their face.

"Not that it's any of my business, but why?" She inquired, genuinely curious as to why a fifteen year old would do a community service project that big.

"It was training for my quirk. I needed somewhere that not a lot of people would see me practicing."

"I guess that makes sense. Still, that's a pretty big deal, especially since you did it by yourself. A lot more people should know about it."

"No!" He quickly spoke up, almost startling the orange haired girl. "I-I mean...I-I don't want anyone to find out it was me. I don't want to run the risk of getting in trouble for using my quirk in public."

Now that certainly confused the orange haired girl. Sure, public quirk use was illegal, there was no denying that. But she was having a hard time believing that anyone would really come after the boy with any legal issues for doing something that most would consider community service. She couldn't help the feeling but there was something to more to it than that, but she didn't want to push the topic any further with him.

"Oh, alright then. No problem." She said, agreeing to his unspoken request.

"Thank you." He awkwardly bowed again.

Immediately after, the silence between the two students took up what was left of their conversation. Kendou quickly took the hint and used that as her opportunity to end their interaction. She still still had to go get lunch before her afternoon heroics class after all.

"So yeah, sorry for holding you up, I was just curious about is all. I guess I'll see you around then." She said with a wave, making her exit.

"Yes. Have a good day, Kendou-san."

* * *

"Midoriya!" A familiar female voiced called out to the verdant teen just as he walked out of the school gates. He turned around to see his purple haired classmate, Kyoka Jiro, quickly padding towards him.

"Hey, sorry to bother you but can I please borrow your algebra notes again? I overheard some of the guys in 1-B talking on the way out and we're supposed to have a quiz tomorrow." She said through spaced breathes, slightly winded after almost running to catch up to him.

Without so much as a thought he reached inside his yellow backpack and fished for his mathematics notebook. This had become a frequent occurrence between the two ever since they started attending U.A. together. Apparently the earphone jack user use to hear back in middle school that he took really good notes or something like that. He didn't mind letting her barrow them though, seeing as he already memorized the pages.

"Thank you so much." She said as she took the black and white notebook from his outstretched hand.

"It's no problem." He dryly responded before turning back around and making his way to the train station. Just then, the girl's voice caught his attention once again.

"Hey um...if it's not too much trouble do you think that you can maybe like...tutor me in math some time." The purple haired girl asked nervously, slightly embarrassed that she had to resort to asking him for his help. "I know you're super busy and all, and that you don't like hanging out with people but I'm starting to fall behind and I'm kinda desperate."

"Why ask me? Doesn't Yaoyorozu-san have a study group for the class?"

"Yeah, but half the class goes to that and I'm pretty sure I learn better with one-on-one sessions."

The boy looked at his classmate and pondered for a moment. Out of everyone in his class, Jiro was one of the few people that he found tolerable enough to interact with. Even if that pretty much just amounted to her asking for his notes at least once a week. She was also the only one, besides Tokoyami, Koda and Shoji, that never tried to bother him for anything unless it was school related. On top of that, he really had no reason to deny her request. After all, it wasn't like he had a social life to take up his free time. _'Well, Mom and Toshinori-san did say that I need to interact with people more. And I guess I could do a whole lot worse.'_

"Okay, I'll do it."

"Wait...really?" She looked up at the green haired boy with a halfway shocked expression. Truth be told, she was almost certain that he was going to flat out tell her "no".

"Yes, it will have to wait until after the internships though. Just let me know when."

"Thank you so much, I really appreciate it. Anyways, I'll get these back to you first thing tomorrow morning. See you later!" The earphone jack user said with a wave before walking off.

* * *

Once classes were over for the day, Midoriya all but ran to the train station to make his way over to Shimane. Although he still had his reservations about all of this, the quirk inheritor felt that he needed to do this. Thankfully, he had somehow convinced Yagi and Sorahiko to allow him to go along with his plan. Even if they were very against it at first.

_"Young Izuku, are you sure that want to go there alone? Despite our findings, I'm still not too sure about this."_ The blonde man inquired to his successor.

_"Yes, I'm a bit nervous about this as well. But Sorahiko-san already scoped the place out and didn't find anything strange about it. Plus, I'd rather not have the both of us go there if something were to happen."_

_"Still, this situation is troubling. I'm not sure about this Heruzo's supposed knowledge of 'One for All', but his message was quite suggestive."_

_"Yeah, you're right. How about this? I'll text or call you every hour on the dot, and if you don't hear back from me then you can send Tsukauchi-san."_ The green haired boy proposed, hoping to subside the man's worry.

A long and defeated sigh escaped the blonde man's mouth. In the back of his mind he knew that the boy was probably going to through with it either way, so trying to talk him out of it was pretty much off the table. _"Fine, but once you're done there. I'll need to hear everything that you've learned."_

_"Yes sir."_

After departing from the train station it only took Midoriya about twenty-five minutes before he found the address on the card. And to say that he was impressed would be an understatement. Sure, he looked up the address online before arriving, but the photos hardly did the place justice. The quirk inheritor was standing in front of a large, three story, modern style building in a rather nice looking neighborhood near the beach. If he was being honest, he was expecting some dingy bar in back alley or something along those lines.

He quickly walked up the steps, rang the fox themed doorbell and gave a forceful knock on the rather large black and grey door. Only to receive no type of response in return. He repeated this two or three times before taking a leap of faith and attempting to just open the door himself. Much to his surprise, the door was unlocked. As the quirk inheritor made his initial steps into the building, he took a moment marvel at the decorations and paintings that lined the walls.

"H-hello! Is anyone her-"

***Bam***

Midoriya barely had enough time to throw his guard up before feeling the impact of what felt like a fist making contact with his left hand.

"What the hel- ugh." The quirk inheritor started to say before dropping to his knees. Immediately he knew that something was wrong. It felt as if all of the energy in his body had suddenly vanished. While he tried to figure out what was happening, the verdant teen's form dropped to floor like sack of potatoes.

To his left , he could barely make out the sound of footsteps approaching him. The hero in training did his best to look up at whoever this mystery person was. But his vision was starting to fade and the only thing he see was a pair of burgundy pants and pale colored feet.

"Y'know. I was hoping that the latest wielder of 'One for All' would've been able to take that hit. But I guess you're still just a kid after all." The voice said in nonchalant manner. Midoriya immediately recognized it as the one from the holoprojector. "We'll talk more about this once you wake up."

Before Midoriya could fully wrap his mind around what was happening, the world around him grew dark and felt himself fade into unconsciousness. This was definitely not how we foresaw his day going.

* * *

Waking up starving and absolutely exhausted was not a foreign feeling to the verdant teen. After nearly two years of training with Yagi and Sorahiko, it was definitely something that he was used to. But what he was not accustomed to was waking up in an unfamiliar room with the sunlight hitting him directly in the face. As he opened his eyes, the memories of what happened right before he passed out came flooding back into his brain. His now heavy eyelids flew open to take his surrounds.

When he turned his head, he was met with a peculiar sight. It was a woman, with short blonde hair and orange eyes staring down at her phone with her feet propped up on a leg stand across from where he was laying down. The green haired boy tried to sit up so that he could talk to her, but the second he moved he felt soreness in his gut, causing him to moan out loud.

"Oh good, you're finally awake." The mystery woman said in a cheery tone of voice as she got up and made her way over to him.

"Who-?"

"Before you say anything, try not to sit up too fast. The backlash of Yuuto's quirk is kind of a pain and if you move around too much you'll end up passing out again." She told him, setting a cup of water down on the table in front of him.

"W-who are you?"

"I'm Sen Kazeoko, but my hero name is Zephyr. I doubt you've heard of me before."

"You're a hero?!" The quirk inheritor's eyes widen at that. Yet another thing that he wasn't expecting to hear.

"Surprised? I don't really blame you though."

"Uh...yeah. What's going on? W-where's Siphon?"

"He had to go blow off some steam. Apparently you have a lot more energy in your body than he thought and needed to work it off before talking to you. He'll be back in a minute."

"How long was I out for?"

"Two hours I think?" She responded, looking at her wristwatch to make sure that she was right.

"Two hours!" Midoriya shouted out. Immediately the boy began searching his person for his cellphone. If he truly had been out for that long then All Might and Tsukauchi were probably on the way right now. And he needed to let them know that he was at the very least alive.

"Don't worry guy, I already told All Might and that detective that you were safe." A familiar male voice said from behind the quirk inheritor.

"What?" He asked, turning around to get a good look at where the voice came from. The boy was immediately met with the sight of a tall, pale skinned man with silver hair and burgundy eyes. He was pretty well built from what the boy could tell, but his most notable feature being the large scar running from the left side of his jaw down to his neck.

"Like I said, I already let them know that you were safe. All Might called your phone about twenty minutes after I knocked you out and brought him up to speed to on what's going on." The silver haired man continued as he plopped down onto the chair next the sofa.

"Wait...what?"

"Y'know, I thought you were supposed to be the calm and cool type of guy. Not the fidgety and overly inquisitive."

"Okay, who are you people and what the heck is going on?!" He shot back at the two individuals in front of him.

"Well for starters, I'm Yuuto Heruzo and this is my fiancé Sen Kazeoko. We're both pro heroes."

"I know that already. But if you're heroes then why did you attack me when I came in here?"

"Honestly, I wanted to see how good you're reflexes were. You put on quite the display at the Sports Festival and I wanted to make sure that you were the real deal."

"Are you serious?" The boy deadpanned at this admission. Only to receive an affirming nod from Heruzo. "Okay, so what about me passing out?"

"Oh that was my quirk. It's called _'drain'_, I can absorb the vitality out of a person's body into my own. To be honest I wasn't expecting you to have so much energy stored up in you."

"Wait, really? That's a amazing quir-" Midoriya unintentionally started fanboying before quickly coming back to his senses._ 'No Izuku, now's not the time for that. You still need to get more information.'_

"Y'know, I was certain that you would've asked me why I know about 'One for All' by now. But considering what all is going on for you right now, I can't really blame you."

"Yes! How exactly do you know about 'One for All'?" The quirk inheritor asked. There was no point in dancing around it now, especially since the man in front of him was the one to bring it up.

"Well, my great-grandfather was the sixth wielder." Heruzo said in a matter-of-fact tone. As if that tidbit of information wasn't a big deal at all.

"What?!" Midoriya's eyes blew open. He definitely wasn't expecting that response.

"Yeah, his name was Rokuto Heruzo. He was Nana Shimura's predecessor."

"Okay...if that were true then how do you know about my quirk? The sixth user would've lived quite a long time ago. And 'One for All' is supposed to only be known by very small group of people."

"Dude, do you really think that after nine users and couple hundred years that no one would know about it? Despite what All Might might've told you, quite a few people are aware of 'One for All'. To my knowledge, at least fourteen people know about it if you include the Minister of Defense."

Okay, that was enough to get Midoriya's head to start spinning. "This is too much too much to take in right now." The quirk inheritor began rubbing his temples. He definitely needed to talk to Yagi after this was over.

"Hey, I get it. Information overload and all that. Tell you what, why don't we continue this discussion in the dining room over some steak and eggs?" The man said in his nonchalant tone before standing up and walking off. The blonde haired woman quickly trailing behind him with a smile on her face.

"O-okay…." The boy agreed, albeit a bit reluctantly. He was still trying to process all of this new information that he had just been given over the course of the last few minutes. In any other scenario the boy would've done everything that he could to gather more. But he knew that he was outmatched right now. Although they didn't appear malicious in any way, he was still at the mercy of two pro heroes at the moment. One with a stamina draining quirk that he didn't fully understand and another who's quirk was a mystery. At the moment he really had to choice but to comply.

Luckily for the green haired teen, Heruzo turned out to be quite proficient in the kitchen. While they were waiting for their meal to be prepared, the silver hair man informed him that a side effect of getting hit with his quirk was extreme hunger. A fact that Midoriya quickly remembered after sitting down at the dining table. Despite still not being totally comfortable in this bizarre situation, he was thankful for the couple's hospitality.

"So how did you find out that I was the latest wielder on 'One for All'?" The quirk inheritor inquired after taking another bite of his scrambled eggs. He still had more questions that he needed answered.

"Well, we knew that it was only a matter of time before All Might passed on his quirk to someone else after his fight with All For One. But we had no idea who it might've been. And then last week I watched you dish out a "Texas Smash" on Endeavor's son during the Sports Festival. After that, I did some research on you and found that you only updated your quirk registry a little over a year ago from quirkless to "Strength Augmentation". Which is a totally boring cover name by the way."

A shade of red quickly made its way onto the boy's face. He can still remember the teasing that Sorahiko gave him after finding out what he had named his quirk. "I-I couldn't think of anything else at the time." He said, bumping his index fingers together. Just then, the rest of the man's explanation finally caught up to him. "Wait, who is "we"?"

"Myself and the Minister of Defense. I use to work as his bodyguard/assistant. Seriously dude, keep up. I thought you were supposed to be smart."

"S-Sorry." Midoriya awkwardly apologized. _'This guy must be pretty well connected if he was able to find all that out in less than a day.'_

"It's whatever." Heruzo waved off. "So anyways...after doing a background check on you and your records, I pretty much confirmed everything and decided to send you that holoprojector."

"Oh I see. So that message was just to get me to come over here to confirm that I had 'One for All'."

"That, and I was serious about you doing your internship with me."

"Really?"

"Believe me, I was just as surprised as you are. Typically, Yuuto would never participate in an internship. He thinks that dragging around some rookie is a waste of time and energy. But I guess this is a special case." Kazeoko spoke up for the first time during this conversation.

"So what do say, dude? Are you going to accept my offer? I mean, I know you probably have offers from more popular heroes but I think I can teach you a lot."

"Not to sound rude, by why is that?" The boy inquired.

"Well, judging by how you carried yourself at the Sports Festival you don't strike me as a guy who pines for the spotlight. Would that be a safe assumption to make?"

"I-I guess so."

"Well, you're in luck Midoriya." Kazeoko interjected. "Yuuto hates drawing attention to himself. It goes against his philosophy as a hero. To be honest, if he put a bit of effort into his public image he'd at least be ranked in the top twenty."

"Seriously? That's incredible!"

"Well, he is fourth amongst active heroes for most cases resolved in the last year. He does quality work." The blonde haired woman continued on before taking another bite of her steak.

"I have my moments. So dude, what's your answer?" The silver haired hero looked to the boy.

Midoriya paused for a moment as he considered the man's proposal. Although he had received offers from several top rank pros, he honestly felt no inclination to want to intern with their agencies. On top of that, he grew increasingly more intrigued by the man sitting to his left. From the information that he had been given so far, Heruzo was a very capable hero. Someone that he no doubt could learn a lot from. On top of that they shared a similar desire to avoid the spotlight. Sure, he still had aspirations of being a great hero one day, but he'd rather learn in an environment away from what he would consider "celebrity heroes". Another potential benefit was that Heruzo was aware of his quirk, and the prospect of any 'One for All' related information that he might have was too valuable to pass up.

"Alright, I'll do my internship with you." He agreed.

"Sweet! Now that we've settled that, we should get you back home before your mom and All Might start to worry. Your internship officially starts on Wednesday if I remember correctly. So I'll see you then."

"Uh, yes sir!"

"Dude, I'm only twenty-five. Don't call me "sir", it makes me feel old. Just call me Yuuto."

"Y-Yes, Yuuto-san."

"It's a start. Well, we'll see you on Wednesday. I have a lot planned for then so come ready to work and be prepared to break a sweat."

"Understood." The bow said with a bow, ready for what was to come next.

* * *

**Author's Notes: Holy dialogue Batman! Yeah, a lot of information this chapter. I honestly didn't expect the exchange between Midoriya and Siphon to go on for so long, but I think it turned out pretty well. It gave all of the information on the character that I wanted to at this time, so I'm happy with it. **

**1\. In case you missed it, Midoriya and Kendou are doing their internship in the same city. And yes, they will definitely be crossing paths over the course of this week. I'm still 50/50 on if I even want Midoriya to come across the Hero Killer, so I'll decided on that before I finish the next chapter. I have a few ideas for how I'm going to handle that. But I want the main focus to be the interactions between the two of them. You guys can vote on it in the reviews.**

**2\. Yes, Siphon and Zephyr and totally based off of Ban and Elaine from "Seven Deadly Sins", but their character personalities are going to be different from what they are in the anime. Both of their characters serve a specific purpose for the story. Spoiler Alert: Zephyr is definitely the "love guru" of this fic.**

**3\. Next chapter, Midoriya and Kendou are going to be spending a lot more time together than they had hoped for. And there are definitely going to be some terrible jokes involved, so be ready for that. You were warned. **

**Like always, thanks for reading and don't be afraid to leave a review. **


	10. Internships: Part 2

On the first day of the internships, Midoriya was more than ready to get the ball rolling. He was looking forward to finally start working with the pro hero. Despite not getting any information on what he'll be doing on his first day, he was assured that this entire week was going to be dedicated to getting the most out of his time with the _'drain'_ quirk user. When he finally arrived at the house, he was greeted with the smiling faces of both Heruzo and Kazeoko. Along with several notebooks and a few stacks of papers in both of their hands.

"Midoriya, you're finally here." Kazeoko said in her usually cheery tone.

"It's about time you showed up." Heruzo lazily stated.

"Greetings Yuuto-san, Sen-san."

"Didn't I tell you that you don't have to be so formal with us?"

"Sorry sir, it's a habit that I have a hard time breaking."

"Don't worry about it, rookie. So, you ready to start the first day of your internship?"

"Yes sir. So uh...what are we doing today?"

"Today is pretty much going to be classroom instruction. We need to make sure that you're up to speed on how everyday hero work is before we go out."

"Oh, I see. So what are you going to be teaching me?" He asked, curious about how this was all going to go.

"_I'm_ not going to be teaching you anything, she is?"

"Really?"

"Yeah, is there a problem with that?"

"No sir, it's just...I w-wasn't expecting it."

"Hmm, I guess that's alright. But Sen is better at the legal stuff and teaching than I am. It is her job after all?"

"Wait, you're a teacher Sen-san?" The boy looked to the blonde haired woman.

"Yeah, I actually teach over at Shiketsu. But, I have off this week because our students are doing their internships as well."

"Oh, alright. So what's on the agenda for this afternoon?"

"Hero public relations, it's not the most entertaining subject. But it's important to learn, especially when you're a rookie. So are you ready to get started?"

"Yes ma'am."

And so began his first day of his internship. Thankfully, the information wasn't nearly as difficult as he anticipated. Besides a block of instruction on public relations, the two went over a variety of subjects for the rest of the day. Everything ranging from legal quirk usage, to property damage and media relations. It was all valuable information that he would need to know when he got his pro hero license. And Kazeoko was fantastic at breaking down information in a very palpable way. The two heroes even took some time at the end of the day to allow Midoriya to fill out some new pages in his **'Hero Analysis No.15'**. He was very excited to learn that Kazeoko's quirk was called _'cyclone'_. Which allowed the short blonde haired woman to create tornadoes and cyclones of various sizes from her hands. It was truly an amazing quirk. But despite all of that, he couldn't help but feel a bit anxious to get to the real part of job. All of that however, changed the next day.

The next morning, Midoriya was woken up by Heruzo and told to get dressed in some workout clothes to begin his first combat training session. Apparently the man needed to assess his abilities before he was comfortable enough to take him out into the city. In a matter of minutes the two of them were in the basement of the house which also served as a training room. It was a large open space with padded floors and walls. Not unlike the training rooms at U.A.

"So rookie, this morning we're just going to go through a few sparring sessions. Feel free to cut loose in here. This room is designed to handle the full force of a tornado."

"Yes, sir."

"Fair warning, you're going up against a pro. This isn't going to be like training with your classmates at school. Don't think I'm going to go easy on you."

"I expected as much." Midoriya said as he adopted his fighting stance. As he sized up the man in front of him, he mentally reviewed everything that he knew about his quirk.

_'Yuuto-san needs to be able to touch me to use his quirk. Judging by how it worked the last time, he doesn't need prolonged contact to drain all of my stamina. I just need to be quicker than him and attack his blind spots.'_ He thought before powering up his full cowling to seven percent. The area wasn't big enough for him to safely go all out. But he was confident that the added speed would be more than enough for the task at hand.

With no more hesitation, the quirk inheritor dashed forward toward the pro. As he closed in on him, Midoriya noticed Siphon gearing up to swipe at him. With minimal effort he used his momentum to springboard off the padded floor and pinball himself across the room. Making several passes both in front of and behind the man to throw him off guard. Constantly making sure that he avoided moving in a predictable pattern.

_'I see he's taken a page out of Gran Torino's book.'_

As the silver haired man's eyes darted from one end of the room to the other, he took note of how the boy was trying to keep him on his toes. They quirk inheritor was smart, there was no doubt about that. And from what he could tell his movements were crisp and deliberate.

After a few seconds of bouncing around, Midoriya found his opening. He quickly jumped from the right side wall, to the ceiling, back down onto the floor and directly behind the man. Powering up his left fist to deliver a punch to his back. As he closed in, Midoriya gave one final thrust. But a couple of meters away from his target, he noticed Siphon look back at him with a satisfied smirk on his face.

**"Soul Siphon!"** The man shouted out.

Just then, Midoriya felt the familiar sensation of his mentor's quirk taking effect, most of the energy in his body immediately vanished. Before he had a chance to rationalize what just happened, he was greeted with the man's fist making contact with his stomach as he flew passed him. Effectively knocking him down to the ground in one blow.

As the green haired teen looked up the silver haired man from his newfound position on the floor, a look of confusion was littered across his freckled face. He quickly noticed that Heruzo's body was vastly different from moments ago. The man was significantly more bulky and cut than before they started.

"W-what happened? You didn't even touch me." He said through labored breaths.

"Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you. I don't need to make contact with my opponent to drain their stamina. They just need to be within a certain radius of my body. Although it takes a lot more concentration and precision, I can double the amount of energy I take in as opposed to physical contact. It's also quicker."

"B-but...how? The other day you took all of my stamina with barely any contact."

"Oh yeah, I actually used that part of my quirk on you when you first showed up. Everything up until now was just misdirection. You didn't think I'd tell you everything about my abilities did you?"

Midoriya deadpanned at the man's words. Of course he wouldn't tell him everything about his quirk. It would've foolish of him to do so. Especially if he had this combat training planned ahead of time. Midoriya couldn't help but get the sense that he was baited into attacking him the way he did. This was a pro hero after all, he had to think several moves ahead of his opponent.

"I'll give you about thirty minutes to recover some of your strength before we continue. After that we're getting right back to it. I don't know about you, but I'm feeling fired up after a meal like that." The silver haired manned laughed as he made his way over to the chair next to one of the walls.

_'What did I get myself into?'_

And so for the rest of morning, the duo continued their combat training. Well to be more accurate, it was more like Midoriya spent the rest of the morning trying to figure ways to counter Siphon's quirk while the pro hero just took any energy that he managed to recover during their breaks. Thankfully after a few hours the man decided that the quirk inheritor had more than enough for one day and ended their training before he lost the ability to stand on both feet.

"Here!" Heruzo called out, tossing a bottle of water to his student.

"Thank you, sir." Midoriya said as he made the catch.

"Hmm, I thought so." A curious look decorated the pro hero's face.

"Huh?"

"You're right handed."

"Okay…."

"But you lean left when you fight. All of your major attacks come from your left side. Why is that?"

"Oh uh, well..." Midoriya started looking away from the man. Adopting a somewhat unsure expression as he tried to come up with an answer. "I-I injured my right arm before receiving 'One for All'. Because of it, I can only handle eight percent of my power on that side right now."

"Really, what happened?"

"I-I'd rather not talk about it."

The silver haired man knew when to take a hint, so he decided not to pursue the topic any further. But if he had to guess, it might have something to do with the large scars running along the boy's right bicep. "No worries, I was just curious is all."

"It's no problem, Yuuto-san."

"Sweet. Now then, let's get cleaned up and get some lunch. We're going to be heading out this afternoon after we get some rest."

"Where on we going?"

"On patrol." His words caused Midoriya's face to light up with a bit of excitement. "And then we're going to go see a colleague of mine."

"Who is it?"

"You'll see. Fair warning, she's a bit over the top."

"A-alright then."

And so after some much need rest and relaxation, the two suited up in their hero costumes and headed out the door. Ready to go out and do their rounds throughout the city.

"So, what's the fastest that you can run?" Heruzo asked.

"About 65 kph is my sustainable speed. But right now I'd say I can go about 45 kph. "

"Oh, so you're a little faster than me, sweet. We should get there in about fifteen minutes." Midoriya glanced up at him with a quizzical look.

"My quirk lets me absorb stamina remember? And I'm more than juiced up after sparring with you this morning. An added bonus is that my physical abilities are enhanced, I also have a bit of a healing factor."

_'And people call me overpowered. At least Yuuto-san doesn't strike me as the type to let the power of his quirk go to his head.'_

* * *

There weren't many times that Itsuka Kendou felt embarrassed in her short fifteen years of life. Sure, there was that time that she vomited all over the dojo during her karate practice when she was ten. Or that time she slipped in fell in the school cafeteria and had to wear her lunch until her mom brought a spare uniform from home. This definitely was up there, though. But embarrassed might not have been proper term, what she was feeling right now was more like regret than anything else.

She imagined that her first hero internship was going to be filled with non-stop action. Taking down villains and helping people was what she signed up for. But what she ended up getting was following Uwabami around for her numerous photoshoots and daytime talk show interviews. To be honest, she felt more like a glorified assistant rather than a hero in training.

It wasn't all bad though. As luck would have it Momo Yaoyorozu, the vice-rep of class 1-A, was also there with her. Although, the raven haired girl was doing her best to stay motivated despite being notably let down after hearing that the snake themed heroine pretty much sent them their offers because she thought they were both "cute young ladies". At first, Kendou felt it a bit insulting that she wasn't recruited for her skills. But she quickly remembered that she didn't get a chance to showcase her combat prowess at all during the Sports Festival. However, if there's anything that her parents taught her, it was to take things in stride and make the most of any situation.

Today though, that was proving to feel a lot like a herculean task more than anything else. The two U.A. students were currently on the sideline while Uwabami was in the middle of yet another photoshoot for the snake heroine's new hairspray line. Thankfully the group was finishing up and their mentor assured them that they were done with the glitz and glamour for the rest of the day.

Just when everything was finally over with. Uwabami approached the two girls with a rather satisfied grin on her face.

"Well ladies, now that we got all of the boring stuff out of the way, how about we get to the fun part of the job?"

"Uwabami-san, it says here on your schedule that after your next meeting you don't have anything for the rest of the day. Is this a mistake?" Yaoyorozu asked while looking at the heroine's daily planner.

"No, I typically try to set aside part of my day so that I can go out and do patrols."

Kendou and Yaoyorozu's faces lit up at the prospect of actually getting to do some real hero work for a change.

"But, before we go out I have to meet up with a colleague of mine."

"Who is it?"

"Is it another hero?"

"Yes, he is. He's an interesting character but he's good people. I'm sure you two could learn a thing or two from him."

* * *

Kendou was feeling pretty excited to finally get to go on her first patrol. After having to deal with most of the nonsense up until now, it was welcomed change of pace. While the three women sat in Uwabami's main office, she was curious as to who they were all waiting on. Their mentor failed to give any information on the hero in question other than the two being former classmates at Shiketsu. She was interested in seeing what kind of heroes the snake themed heroine worked with.

Before her thoughts could wander any further, the doors to the office opened and out stepped two men. The first person she noticed was tall man with silver hair and burgundy eyes, a scar running along the left side of his jaw. His suit had a black base layer with burgundy armor plating covering his chest, shoulders and other parts of his body. He was also carrying a similarly designed helmet in his right arm along with a black sansetsukon at his hip. The other person however was a little more of a surprise.

Behind the first man walked in a younger looking one about her age. His suit consisted of a black top, featuring three horizontal green lines across the chest and shoulders with a green star at the center. A black utility belt with black cargo pants that had a single green stripe running down the side. He was also sporting shin-high combat boots that looked to add a bit of protection for his lower legs, fingerless red gloves and what appeared to be mask that covered the lower half of his face. But what stood out the most to her was the mop of messy green hair and emerald eyes that were left exposed outside of the headgear. Yup, there was no doubt about it. Of all the people that Kendou was expecting to run into this week. _He_ was definitely not on the list.

"Siphon, it's so good to see you! And I see you brought a guest." Uwabami looked towards Midoriya after walking up to greet the two newcomers.

"Yes, this is Kurou." The man now identified as Siphon spoke. His voice was smooth and somewhat proper, but casual at the same time. "He's interning with me for the week."

_'Kurou?'_ Kendou thought as she watched the man motion towards Midoriya. As far as hero names goes, that was an interesting pick.

"Well, I'm surprised. You were the last person I'd expect to take on an intern. Especially one so famous. Tell me, how did Siphon manage to convince you to join up with him?"

"Let's just say that me and the kid share similar philosophies on heroics is all." Siphon waved off with a quick laugh. "I see you have a couple of rookies with you as well."

"Yes, where are my manners? This is Battle Fist and Creati, girls this is Siphon. He may not look like much, but he's actually one of the better heroes in this part of Japan."

"It's nice to meet you sir."

"Yes, it's a pleasure."

"Likewise." He greeted the two girls with a couple of handshakes.

"All of you are classmates, if I'm not mistaken." Uwabami inquired to her two interns.

"Yes, Midoriya-san is in 1-A with me, ma'am." Yaoyorozu quickly confirmed.

"How delightful."

"Before we continue on with this conversation, Uwabami do you have what I came here for?" Siphon asked the snake themed heroine. His voice laced with a slight hint of urgency.

"Of course, let me get it out of my desk." The three students watched as the woman made her way to the large metal desk near the back of room and rummage through one of the locked drawers. Only to pull out a single black flash drive and hand it over to the silver haired man. Their curiosity was peaked at what information could possibly have been on the device, but none of them had enough heart to ask about it.

"Thank you."

"It was no problem, anything for a dear friend." She responded with a warm smile. "So what do you and Kurou here have planned for the rest of the day? You usually operate at night time, if I'm not mistaken."

"After we leave here, we were planning on doing patrols throughout the city. I want the kid to get as much field time as possible."

"What a coincidence, me and the girls were just about to head out as well. How about we all go together?" She proposed, surprising the three students in the room.

"Only if you promise to keep the paparazzi away from the two of us." Siphoned retorted with a deadpan expression.

"Oh you won't need to worry about that."

"Well...if it's okay with the kid, I'd be willing to do it."

"Uh, s-sure." Midoriya quietly responded.

"Excellent! Actually, before we head out there's something I need to talk you about. It's concerning _you know who_." Uwabami's facial expression changing to a more serious look at the last part of her sentence. Something that Kendou immediately picked up on.

"I see...is there somewhere more private that we can discuss this?"

"Yes, I have another office on the next floor. We'll be right back you three, this will only take a few minutes."

Without another word, the two pro heroes quickly exited the room to conduct whatever business they needed to handle. Leaving Kendou, Midoriya and Yaoyorozu awkwardly standing by and looking at one another.

"So Midoriya-san...how's your internship going so far?" Kendou spoke up. Hoping to break the uncomfortable silence between the three.

"It's going well." The green haired teen dyly responded in his usual tone. Much to Kendou and Yaoyorozu's annoyance.

"Y'know, I thought after coming in first place at Sports Festival you'd receive offers from some more popular heroes. I don't think I've ever heard of Siphon before." The orange haired girl continued on.

"I did."

"So...how many offers did you get? I only got around 290."

"I received a little over 4,500."

"What?! You can't be serious." Kendou almost shouted. She thought that Shiozaki had a ton of offers, but that was ridiculous.

"He is…" Yaoyorozu interjected. "Only Todoroki-san got more than him." She continued with a slight tinge of satisfaction to her voice. When it came to Yaoyorozu, Midoriya didn't really have any issues with the girl. The only thing that was off putting about the raven haired teen was her tendency to flaunt her family's wealth around others. He wasn't sure if it was intentional or not, but it definitely made her seem like the self-absorbed, uppity type. Sort of like Iida.

On the flip side, much like the rest of class 1-A Yaoyorozu didn't see Midoriya in the most positive of lights either. There was no doubt that his intelligence matched her own, seeing as she barely edged him out in terms of academics. But with his cold attitude and the way he brushed others off so casually, it was difficult to want to talk to him. She was honestly surprised that he was even engaging in conversation with her internship partner.

"How many did he get?" Kendou looked to the two members of 1-A

"Over 5,000."

"Man, don't let Monama-san hear about this or he'll blow his top."

The awkward silence quickly fell upon the group once again for a few moments. But this time Yaoyorozu took it upon herself to break the tension this time around.

"So, I guess the three of us will be patrolling together this afternoon. I'm looking forward to what this will entail."

"It can't be any worse than this morning. Hey Midoriya-san, what did Siphon have you do before showing up?" Kendou asked the green haired teen.

"Other than teaching me some of the basics about being a pro, we spent most of the morning sparring." He stated.

"Really? Sounds like a blast. We've pretty much been assisting Uwabami with her video shoots the whole time."

"Yes, it's definitely not what I was expecting. But it's an important part of being a hero in the modern age." Yaoyorozu groaned.

_'Right, only for people whose main concern is money or fame.'_ Midoriya thought to himself. The green haired teen didn't necessarily have the highest opinions of "celebrity heroes" such as Uwabami or Mt. Lady. But he definitely wasn't going to voice that opinion out loud. Especially not in the snake heroine's office of all places.

"So how'd your sparring go this morning? I'm sure you gave your hero a run for his money."

"Actually no, he beat me pretty easily."

The two girls eyes widen at his statement. They were more than aware of Midoriya's physical capabilities. Hell, most of Japan was after watching him in the Sports Festival. It was easy to say that he could probably give most pros a hard time. So anyone who could take him down with ease must be a force to be reckoned with.

"Wow, he must be a pretty solid fighter if he can take you down." Kendou let out an awkward chuckle. "Hey I have a question, you train in martial arts right? What style do you practice?"

"I-" Before he could respond, the sound of the office door opening drew their attention. Siphon and Uwabami were standing at entrance looking at the three of them.

"Alright rookies, let's get going!"

* * *

An enigma. Yes, that's exactly the word that Kendou would use to describe Izuku Midoriya. The green haired boy was a complete and utter enigma. Upon first impressions, you would assume that the boy was your standard arrogant teenager blessed with a powerful quirk. But that was not true at all. On one hand, he was a quiet, antisocial, cold and indifferent boy who no one really knew anything about. On the other, he was a smart, and powerful young man who apparently spends his free time single handedly cleaning up beaches, helping out store owners and protecting people from bullies. It didn't make sense. In all honesty, she would go as far as to say that he was a walking contradiction. From what Kendou knew about Midoriya, he didn't really fit any particular mold that she was use to seeing. And that was interesting, very interesting.

As the group of five walked through the streets of Shimane she watched the way that the green haired teen carried himself. Normally you would think that guys like him would strut around with an air of haughtiness, but that wasn't the case. If anything, Midoriya seemed to be doing everything he could to not draw attention to himself. Sure every now and then some random person would walk up their group and ask for either a picture or an autograph, most of which were directed at him or Uwabami. But besides a few short waves and polite greetings, he kept quiet and stayed in the back.

Roughly two and a half hours into their patrol the group ended up coming upon a large shopping plaza near the center of the city. Just as they were making their way past the adjacent park a pack of fans and paparazzi swarmed their group asking for autographs and photos. Uwabami, who seemed more than willing, drew the crowd's attention and started signing shirts and posing for the cameras. All while Heruzo and Midoriya quietly stepped off to the side, neither one particularly wanting to be in the middle of that madness. This went on for about ten minutes and Kendou was honestly starting to regret not taking a different internship offer.

Suddenly from across the street, the sound of a large bang and shattered glass drew away everyone's attention.

"Someone help me! Those thieves stole our ATM!" A middle aged woman standing in front of a convenience store cried out. Kendou looked over to see a group of men driving off in a black pickup truck away from the crime scene.

"You three make sure that woman is alright. Kurou let's go, we can still catch up to them." Siphon immediately commanded.

"R-right." The quirk inheritor quickly agreed.

Without another word the two men dashed off in the direction of the truck. Kendou watched as they both disappeared into the distance at ridiculous speeds. At least now she somewhat had a clue on how the pro was able to beat the green haired boy. Just as quickly as the two men vanished, the three ladies pulled themselves away from the crowd and went to the convenience store to check up on the victim.

"Ma'am are you alright? Was anybody hurt?" Uwabami asked the middle aged woman.

"I'm fine, hero. But those jerks got away with our ATM and all the money in the cash register." She replied.

"Creati, stay here with her and wait for the police to arrive. Battle Fist, come with me. Siphon's going to need help with the clean up." The snake heroine ordered to her two rookies. Receiving an affirmative nod from the raven haired teen.

_'Clean up?'_ Kendou wondered at the woman's words. If anything, with the amount of people she saw in that truck, Midoriya and Siphon were going to need some help. Either way, the orange haired girl was definitely excited to finally get to see some action.

However, when Kendou and Uwabami finally arrived onto the scene a couple of blocks away from the store it looked like the issue had been resolved. When she looked around the street that the vehicle turned on she was more than a bit surprised. The black truck from before was stopped in the middle of the road with a massive crater in the center of the hood. All while Siphon and Midoriya were dragging the unconscious bodies of the four criminals onto the sidewalk.

_'They took these guys out that quick?'_ She thought, looking over the scene once more. It had barely been five minutes since the group drove off and the two of them were already done. Needless to say that she was impressed.

"Whoa, did you see what that guy did? He knocked them out, and without even touching them." A bystander shouted from the other side of the street.

"Seriously. Hey, isn't that the guy from the Sport Festival?" Another asked the group of onlookers.

"Yeah, it is!"

"Did you see him punch a hole through the hood of the truck? That's some wild power."

"Great job heroes!"

Kendou's glance turned towards Midoriya as she watched the boy place the last of crooks on the wall. Almost remorseful that she missed what happened.

_'Man, Setsuna was right. This guy definitely is a Wonderboy.'_

* * *

After wrapping things up with the robbery and finishing their reports with the police, Uwabami and Siphon decided that was enough excitement for one day and ended the group's patrol. Although she didn't get a chance to get in on the action from earlier, Kendou did enjoy going out and actually doing some hero work.

Before finally splitting up, the two adults agreed to do another joint patrol the day after tomorrow. Much to Kendou and Yaoyorozu's delight. With Siphon and Midoriya accompanying them it was pretty much a guarantee that they would be getting away from cameras and talk show interviews at least one more time before the week was over. With that, the two men said their goodbyes and left the three of them to finish up with whatever they had to do for the rest of the evening. Kendou couldn't help but steal another glance at Midoriya as she watched the green haired teen's form slip away into the distance.

"Y'know Kendou-chan. The two of you would make a very cute couple." Uwabami giggled, taking notice of what her intern's eyes were lingering on.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"What?!" Kendou eyes blinked in surprised, a slight blush forming on her face at the snake heroine's comment.

"I never pegged you to be into the strong silent type. Although, the boy is pretty cute. Maybe I should try and get him to do one of my commercials?"

"Uwabami-san, I-I don't t-think...you-"

"Oh please, I saw you checking him out a second ago. Y'know, if you don't make a move on him now you'll miss your chance."

"I'm...he's not…t-that's just...Yaoyorozu-san help me out here!" Kendou waved her hands in protest, looking to her counterpart for some assistance.

"Ma'am, Midoriya-san is quite rude and very antisocial. In fact, today is the most I've ever seen him interact with classmates. I would think that Kendou-san could do a lot better."

_'Not really what I was going for, but okay.'_

"Yes, the boy does put off that kind of energy doesn't he? All the more reason for you get to get him break out of his shell."

The deadpanned look on Kendou's face was more than enough to get a hearty laugh out of Uwabami that lasted way longer than she would've liked.

"Calm down, I'm just messing with you...mostly. Now come on, let's get back inside and wrap things up for the night. We have a full schedule and a fan meet up tomorrow."

The two girls both groaned in defeat realizing that they still had to endure another day of photoshoots and camera testing. _'Yeah, I definitely should've taken that Gunhead internship when I had the chance.'_

* * *

That night, Kendou and Yaoyorozu were finally able to crawl into their beds and get some much needed rest for night. They had a pretty early wake up the next morning and neither one of them wanted to be low on energy for the amount of running around they had on tomorrow's schedule.

"Man, pretty eventful day, huh?" Kendou said while plugging her phone into the charger after setting her alarm.

"I'll say. It's not what I was expecting, but we did learn a lot. I hope we get to do patrols more often." Yaoyorozu agreed from across the room.

"Yeah, it kinda sucks that Midoriya and Siphon got to see all the action."

_'Great, I'm starting to sound like Tetsutetsu.'_

"Yes well, those two were better equipped than us to handle that situation. And they reacted quicker than we could've."

"I can't argue with you there."

"I'm honestly just surprised that Midoriya-san even talked to us while we were out there. That was the most I've heard him speak all semester."

"Yeah...hey Yaoyorozu-san-"

"You can just call me Momo." The raven haired teen interjected with a smile.

"If that's the case then you can just call me by given name too."

"Good to know. So what did you want to ask?"

"I was just wondering. What's it like being in class with Midoriya-san? I heard from Jiro-san and Uraraka-san that he isn't the most friendly person ever."

"To be honest, he's not that bad but he's not pleasant either. I mean, he rarely talks to anyone and ignores it when people try to approach him. The only time he engages with people is during mandatory group assignments. Even then he tries to do all the work by himself."

"I see. It must suck having to deal with all the abrasive personalities in 1-A."

"It's not too terrible. Sure, Midoriya-san and Todoroki-san are the lone wolf type of guys. But Bakugou-san is by far the worst. Especially since it seems like he has an axe to grind with Midoriya-san."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't quite know the particulars of it. But from what I can tell, he seems to have a personal problem with him."

"Do the two have history or something?"

"I'm not too sure. I asked Kyoka if he went to middle school with them, but she said that it was only her and Midoriya-san. My best guess is that it has something to do with Midoriya-san's quirk."

"Huh?"

"You remember how I told you that we had to do that quirk apprehension test our first day of class? Well for most of the morning Bakugou-san kept calling him a "quirkless loser". Which obviously didn't make sense seeing as Midoriya-san very obviously has a quirk and powerful one at that. And he was absolutely irate when Midoriya-san placed first."

"Any idea why?"

"No clue. But whatever the reason, out of everyone in our class Bakugou-san definitely hates Midoriya-san the most. I honestly don't understand how Kirishima-san can tolerate being around him."

"Weird."

"Why the sudden interest?" Yaoyorozu looked to Kendou with puzzled expression.

"Just curious. He did save me and Uraraka-san during the entrance exam. I just find it hard believe that a guy like that would take on such a risk like then act like a total jerk."

"Indeed, the boy is quite the enigma."

"Oh well, no use in worrying over it. Anyways, we should probably get to bed. Uwabami's commercial shoot starts pretty early."

"Ugh, don't remind me." The raven haired teen groaned.

"Goodnight."

"You too."

As she laid in bed waiting to pass off into dreamland, for some reason Kendou's mind kept wandering back to Midoriya. She just couldn't quite figure the guy out. While she would admit that her curiosity about him had been peaked, she quickly tried to brush those thoughts aside in favor of getting some much needed rest. Whatever thoughts that she had about the green haired mystery could wait until later.

_'Yeah, he's definitely an interesting one.'_

* * *

**Author's Notes: So yeah, another super long chapter this week. I decided to just combine the next two chapters into one to get them out the way. I'm honestly still trying to get the pacing right for this story without everything feeling rushed. The next chapter is going to get slightly dark, but I'm going to try and find a way to balance that out with a bit of fluff. Hopefully you guys will enjoy it. I'm also trying to show that Midoriya is slowly starting to interact with people his own age more, so expect a few more interactions with Kendou and a few members of 1-A in the future. But it won't be anything too drastic. We also got yet another tiny piece of the Midoriya backstory, and it's once again another big clue. **

**1\. Well there you have it folks, Midoriya's new hero name is "Kurou". It's the Japanese word for "hardship", which I feel like fits theme of the story more than just keeping with "Deku". It can also be spelled with the kanji for 'nine'. Depending on the way you spell it and the context of the situation, it can also mean "hard worker". But I'm not very fluent in Japanese so I'm sure someone out there will try to correct me. **

**2\. We also get our first look at Midoriya's hero suit. I pretty much just based it off of Captain America's suit form "The Winter Soldier". It's one of my all-time favorite costume designs and I definitely think that it would good on Midoriya. I've read a ton of fanfics that put him in a shirt and tie or some variation of that and I'm not really a fan of those. But, I'm not going to get on my soapbox when it comes to ridiculous costumes designs. **

**3\. I've decided that I'm not going to have Midoriya go up against Stain in this part of the story, but the two will come face to face in the near future. I have something special for that interaction that I can't wait to write out. **

**Like always, let me know what you guys think and don't be afraid to drop a review. I like hearing some of your guy's ideas and they actually help me with the story quite a bit. So I appreciate the input. **


	11. Internships: Part 3

_"Izuku! Oh my god, what happened to my baby?"_ The wailing voice of Inko Midoriya could be heard on the other side of the wall.

_"Ma'am please, you need to remain calm."_ Another deep voice responded.

_"Calm? You want me to be calm?!"_

_"Please, we're doing everything that we can to help him."_

_"Is...is he going to be okay?"_

_"Yes, he'll be fine. We have a great team working with him. Now please, return to the lobby and we'll come get you once surgery is over."_

_"Oh Izuku…."_

"Ahh!" Midoriya almost shouted once he regained consciousness at the sound of phone's alarm bringing him back to life. Frantically, he began looking around the almost unfamiliar room he found himself in. Taking a few seconds for it to register inside of his mind that he was still in the guest bedroom of Heruzo and Kezeoko's home. And judging by the faint rays of light peeking through his window, it was slightly past sunrise. He quickly reached over to his right and shut his alarm off before looking at the time. He still had about and hour and a half to eat and stretch before his morning session with Heruzo. With as much energy as he could muster after only just waking up he slowly dragged himself out of bed and made his way to the kitchen, ready to get the day started.

* * *

"Y'know kid, we can stop these training sessions whenever you'd like. Just say the word." Heruzo taunted the quirk inheritor after successfully throwing him to the ground for what felt like the ninth time this morning.

"No, I'm fine. Let's keep going." Midoriya managed to let out as he picked himself up off the training room floor. If there was one thing that the green haired teen had going for him, it was his uncanny ability to keep pushing himself after getting a strong left jab to the face.

"Alright, but don't say that I didn't give you a an out."

With that, Midoriya powered up his _'Full Cowling'_ once again and began his assault. As he pinballed himself around the room the teen's mind began going over his plan of attack. So far the only viable strategy that he could come up with was attacking Heruzo's blind spot. But even then his opponent's reflexes were sharp enough to react to this. If the quirk inheritor was being honest, he was starting to think that all of this was a lost cause. Not only was Heruzo a skilled martial artist, but his quirk was whole different issue that he had yet to find a strategy to counter.

Throughout these training sessions he was able to deduce that the range of Heruzo's quirk was somewhere in the ballpark of ten meters. And if he was reckless he'd have all of his energy drained in an instant. It's almost the perfect defense.

_'Wait, an instant.'_ He thought to himself. Suddenly, an idea popped into his mind. It was definitely a risky one, but it might be his only chance to actually win this round.

Midoriya quickly bounced himself on the right side wall and landed on the ground a few meters right in front of Heruzo. He then launched himself straight towards the silver haired man.

_'A straight on attack. I thought that he'd know better by now.'_ Heruzo thought as he prepared to release his quirk. Just then, something happened that caught him completely off guard. The moment that he released his power, Midoriya shot his fist out in a downward motion releasing a strong gust of wind.

**"New Hampshire Smash!"** He howled as the force of his attack sent him flying back to the far side wall. The second his feet made contact with the padded surface, he powered up to eleven percent and launched himself directly back at his opponent. Like a bat out of hell he jetted across the room and the moment before his fist made contact he caught a look of utter surprise on the _'drain'_ quirk user's face. As Midoriya delivered a devastating left punch to his opponent's gut, a loud grunt could be heard across the room before Heruzo dropped to the ground, clutching his stomach.

"Ugh, you actually hit me. What the hell was that?" The silver haired man asked from his new position on training room floor.

A short grin came from Midoriya's mouth as he powered down his quirk. "I finally figured out your quirk."

"Oh yeah? Please enlighten me."

"I already got a rough idea about the effective range of your power, but I also just figured out something else. There's a time limit on your attacks. Everytime you used your _'drain'_ on me, it only lasted for about a second." The boy clarified while walking off to the side to grab a bottle of water. "I used a "New Hampshire Smash" to get away from you the moment you released your quirk. It was a gamble but I guess it worked out."

A hearty laugh from Heruzo resonated through the room before the man gave Midoriya an approving smirk. "Not bad kid, you actually figured it out. You're right, I can only hold my "Soul Siphon" for about a second."

"And I'm guessing that you can't use that part of your quirk consecutively or else you would've tried to get me again when I came back into range."

"Yeah, you're right. I can only use it every five seconds. Good job, it only took you three days to figure out my weakness."

"So...are we going to go another round?"

"As much as I'd love to, we've run out of time this morning. We have to start getting ready to head over to Uwabami's agency. But tomorrow morning we will definitely be picking up where we left off. For now, go shower and get dressed."

"Yes sir." The boy said with a quick bow before heading up stairs to get ready for their meetup.

* * *

_"In latest news straight out of Hosu, the 'Hero Killer' strikes again. Last night in the midst of the attack in downtown Hosu that was believed to have been orchestrated by the League of Villains, the 'Hero Killer' Stain claimed the life of yet another local hero, Native, who was found dead at the scene. In addition to this, another victim was found to be in critical condition after receiving multiple stab wounds. Luckily, a group of sidekicks from the Endeavor Hero Agency managed to chase away the villain and rush him to a nearby hospital. The victim is now in stable condition and the family has asked that his identity not be made public at this time. However, the 'Hero Killer' is still at large."_ The voice of the television reporter said from the monitor in the locker room.

"Hey, most of your classmates are doing their internships in Hosu, right?" Kendou asked Yaoyorozu as she finished lacing up her boots.

"Yes, I've contacted everyone just to make sure that they're alright. So far the only people I haven't heard back from were Iida-san and Midoriya-san. How about you?"

"The only person we had over there was Tetsutetsu, but he let us all know that he was okay."

"Well, that's a relief. I honestly wasn't expecting a response from Midoriya-san but Iida-san is usually very quick to reply to my texts." The raven haired teen responded while still looking at her phone.

"I wouldn't worry too much about it." The orange haired teen waved off. "Midoriya-san is here in Shimane and Iida-san is smart enough to avoid getting into any type of trouble."

"Yeah you're right."

Right when the two of them finished changing into their costumes, the locker room door opened up to reveal Uwabami who was dressed in her usual purple gown with matching heels. How the woman managed to function in that outfit was still a mystery to Kendou.

"Alright ladies, Kurou and Siphon are waiting for us downstairs. Are you two ready to head out?"

"Yes ma'am."

* * *

For the first three hours of their patrol, everything went along as expected for the quintet of heroes and sidekicks. Across Japan, the Shimane prefecture was viewed as somewhat of mixture between a fashion district and a beach resort, so Saturday afternoons usually consisted of most of its residents roaming around looking to relax and get some shopping done. Unfortunately for the group, they didn't get a chance to take advantage of any of those luxuries when a villain with a sand quirk decided to ruin the fun.

Just when the heroes finished up patrolling a nearby shopping center, a slurry of frantic screams and cries for help came from the direction of a nearby pier where a large twister of sand could be seen in the distance. The group wasted no time jumping into the action as Siphon jetted off to take on the assailant.

"You three, head over to the road and start evacuating the civilians. I'll go help out Yuuto-kun." Uwabami commanded to the students. Receiving a quick nod from all three of them, before running in the direction of the villain.

The students quickly made their way over to the next street with Midoriya leading the charge. As the battle ensued, Kendou and Yaoyorozu began directing traffic and leading the panicking civilians to safety while Midoriya went further down the road to see if anyone needed help. This lasted for about three minutes before most of the civilians seemed to be out of danger.

As she scanned over the area to see if anyone else was left, Kendou spotted a young red haired woman sprinting down the road in her direction. Without hesitation, she quickly made her way over the woman and grabbed onto her hand before leading her off of the street.

"Itsuka-chan, look out above you!" The voice of Yaoyorozu yelled from down the road, catching the orange haired girl's attention.

Kendou whipped her neck around only to see a small car flying directly to where she was standing. The _'big fist'_ user immediately enlarged both her hands to shield herself and the woman, preparing for the impending impact. But just before the hunk of metal could land, the girl felt something wrap around her body and move her out of the way only a split second before hearing a loud crashing sound in the distance.

Kendou immediately deactivated her quirk and looked up only to see a mop of wild green hair standing directly over her.

"Are you two alright?" Midoriya asked the two of them.

"Yeah...thanks for the save."

"Oh my god, thank you so much! I thought that we were done for." The redhead squeaked out.

"You guys head to safety. I'll go see if Siphon and Uwabami need any help." The green haired teen said to them before green electricity enveloped his body and jumping off into the direction of the battle. Not waiting for any type of response.

_'That's the second time he saved me from getting crushed.'_ Kendou thought while she watched her fellow student speed off down the road.

"Oh wow, that was the guy who won the Sports Festival right? Man, he's so hot." The redhead said with a dreamed look in her eyes.

"Wha-"

"Itsuka-chan, are you okay?" Yaoyorozu asked her as she came running up to give her assistance.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Kendou quickly waved off. "Let's get her out of the way before we get flattened."

"Right."

* * *

As soon as they finished dealing with the sand villain and giving their statements to the police, Siphon and Uwabami lead their crew to nearby ramen stand for a well deserved break. The group sat around for a few minutes while enjoying their meals and discussing the attack before the snake heroine decided to give some words of encouragement to the the three students.

"You guys did a good job out there today making sure all those civilians we're out of harm's way."

"Thank you ma'am, I just wish that we could've done more to help you out." Kendou responded before taking another slurp of her noodles.

"Don't get hung up on that sort of thing, Battle Fist. You guys are still students after all, we don't need you getting caught up in the middle of that sort of stuff right now."

"Plus that guy had a pretty powerful quirk. If it wasn't for the fact that he liked to run his mouth so much it would've taken us longer to deal with him." Siphon interjected.

"Yes, I don't get why criminals always feel the need to start monologuing in the middle of a fight."

"That's just how a lot of them are. I guess he was just too confident in his abilities."

"I'm not going to argue with you on that. It does seem to be a common theme nowadays. What do you think about that, Kurou?" Uwabami looked over to the green haired teen. Up until now he barely gave any input into their previous conversations and the snake haired heroine thought it would be fun to pick his brain a bit.

"W-well, people born with powerful quirks usually tend to let that power go to their heads." He absentmindedly replied.

From their seats, the other four heroes shot the boy some curious glances his way. Truth be told, it wasn't the kind of response either of them expecting and Midoriya immediately regretted letting those words come out of his mouth.

"That's an interesting viewpoint kid. Care to elaborate on that a bit more?" Uwabami continued, now slightly more interested in what he had to say.

"W-well, I don't really mean anything bad by it." He stuttered out. "It's just that...nowadays people who were lucky enough to have strong quirks more often than not let that get to their heads and aren't easy to deal with. They think themselves invincible because they won the genetic lottery."

_'If that's not the pot calling the kettle black.'_ Kendou and Yaoyorozu's thoughts echoed at Midoriya's words.

"Y'know Kurou, the same could be said about you. From what I've seen, I'd be willing bet that you have one of the strongest quirks in your school."

"I'd like to think that I don't fall in that category, Uwabami-san."

"And why is that?"

"Because unlike some people, I don't have an ego." He replied.

For a split second, Kendou swore she heard a bit of edge in Midoriya's voice. And that was something that peaked her interests. She agreed with Uwabami in guessing that Midoriya probably had one of the strongest quirks out of everyone at U.A.. Hell, she would even be willing to bet that he could go toe-to-toe with most pros based off of what she's seen. But the way he said that was definitely weird to her. From the limited interactions that she's had with him so far, she would agree that he didn't come off as egotistical. Or at least he didn't outwardly express it. But there was something about his statement about people with powerful quirks that seemed a bit "loaded".

"I do agree with Kurou for the most part." Siphon spoke up, setting his bowl down onto the table. "If history has taught us anything, it's that powerful individuals tend to think themselves higher than everyone else. It's important for rookies like you all to understand that so you don't fall into the same trap. Heroes aren't supposed to think that they're superior to anyone, it's not a good trait for someone whose duty is to help people."

"That is very true, sir." Yaoyorozu agreed after finishing off her third bowl of ramen.

"Indeed it is. Now then, we still have have about an hour left before we need to call it a day. How about we start making our way back to the agency?"

After quickly finishing off the rest of the food and paying the tab, the group began making their way back to Uwabami's agency building to wrap up their day. Along the way however, Kendou decided to take the opportunity to speak to Midoriya and thank him for saving her earlier.

"Hey Midoriya-san."

"Y-yes?"

"Thanks again for the help earlier, you really saved my butt back there."

"It was no problem Kendou-san."

"Not for you maybe, but I still just wanted to let you know that appreciated it." She said with polite smile.

"O-oh, uh...alright."

_'Aren't these two just adorable.'_ Uwabami thought to to interself with a not-so-subtle smirk on her face as she watched the two of them talk.

* * *

Later that night while Heruzo, Kazeoko and Midoriya sat around the dining table, the silver haired man decided that now would be the perfect time to get back at the quirk inheritor for managing to land a blow him earlier that morning.

"So Midoriya, what's the deal with you and that Kendou girl?"

"H-huh?"

Both men missed the sharp looked that Kazeoko immediately shot towards the green haired teen as she took a sip from her cup of tea.

"Oh come on, don't try and act dumb. I saw the way she was looking at you today. So spill dude, what's the deal?"

"Oh, has Midoriya caught the eye of a pretty young lady~?" The teasing voice of Kazeoko inquired.

"I think so."

"I-I don't know what you're talking about sir. Nothing is going on."

"See, I would believe you if it wasn't for one thing."

"And what is that?"

"Both times we've gone out with Uwabami, you were more willing to talk to her than that Yaoyorozu girl. And she's not even in your class."

"Is that so? Interesting indeed."

"It's r-really not what you're thinking, sir." Midoriya quickly waved off, a slight blush now forming onto his cheeks.

"So what is it then?"

"It's just that uh...well...m-my mom and All Might said that they wanted me to try a bit harder to interact some of the kids at school. And well, I kinda already got off on the wrong foot with everyone in my class. On top of that I don't really have the easiest time talking t-to g-girls so…."

"I see, so this is your way of actively making an effort to do that."

"Kinda...but I've never really been able to talk to people my own age so it's still hard to do."

"Now that I think about it, isn't Kendou the name of that girl that you were teamed up with during the Sport Festival? The one with the orange hair." The blonde haired woman asked him.

"Y-yes."

Kazeoko tapped a finger to her chin for a few seconds before a devious grin made its way to face. "Hmm, I see. Y'know the two of you would look awfully cute together. You should totally ask her out!"

"What?!" Midoriya's face almost erupted into a shade of red at the woman's statement.

"Haha...I'm just kidding Midoriya..._mostly_."

Hoping to shift the conversation away from this extremely embarrassing and uncomfortable topic, Modriya quickly racked his brain for something else to talk about. Thankfully he now saw a chance to ask a question that has been on his mind for the last few days.

"So uh...Yuuto-san, I've been meaning to ask. What kind of hero work do you typically do?"

"Nice job deflecting kid. But if you really want to know, I work for the Minister of Defense. Regular hero duty is about half of what I do."

"Really? That's amazing."

"Yeah, his grandfather and my great-grandfather actually used to be close friends before All For One killed him. When I graduated from Shiketsu he recruited me right away to become his assistant and join his bodyguard team. I did that for about four years before before moving out here with Sen a while back."

_'Well that explains the four year gap that Sorahiko-san and Tsukauchi-san found out about.'_ Midoriya internalized.

"That's pretty cool. I didn't think that heroes did that kind of work."

"Typically no, but our team is a bit of a special case. We still get called in frequently for certain jobs and missions but for the most part we all just work as regular heroes. Sen's brother is actually one of my teammates."

"Yes, it's how me and Yuuto met."

"Wow."

"So yeah, that's the kind of hero work I do. It's nothing glamorous but it pays very well. How else would we be able to afford this house?"

"I see, well thank you for answering my question."

"No problem."

"Now that we're done talking about that…" The blonde haired woman interposed. Obviously not done with her own little inquiry. "Tell me more about this Kendou girl, Midoriya. Do you think she's cute? Is she your type?"

That night Midoriya learned that above all else, Sen Kazeoko loved gossiping and all those romance related.

* * *

**Author's Notes: Well there you have it, this pretty much wraps up the internship part of the story. Next chapter we're going back to U.A.. I had a hard time writing out this chapter and I don't like it very much, to be honest. But I think I got the point across of what I was trying to do. Hopefully you all don't hate it too much. But don't worry, Siphon and Zephyr are going to be reoccurring characters so we'll be seeing a lot more of them later on. **

**1\. So yeah, because Midoriya wasn't in Hosu during the LoV attack, he wasn't there to stop Stain from killing Iida. But, I didn't have the heart to kill him off because I just love his character too much. So I kinda went for a copout and just had him get saved by some of Endeavor's men before getting axed. And because Midoriya wasn't present, by extension Todoroki never showed up either. But you guys will see the butterfly effect that this has on the story. I cooked up something pretty interesting that's going to go down in a few chapters that I think you all will enjoy. **

**2\. I also used this as an opportunity to have the characters (Mainly Kendou) look into the mind of Midoriya for a bit and see his views on certain things. I didn't originally intend on Midoriya harboring resentment towards people with strong quirks, but it kind of just happened and I feel like I can use that as a good plot point. I also thought it would funny for everyone to react to that sort of thing seeing as Midoriya has one of the strongest quirks in the show. **

**3\. I'm kind of stuck how I can get class 1-A and class 1-B to interact more in the story without it being cheesy. So I'm open to any ideas that you guys might have. Leave your suggestions in the reviews and I'll be sure to give you a shoutout if I use it.**

**Like always, thank you for taking the time to read this fic and feel free to leave a reviews. **


	12. Curiosity

***WARNING***

**This is your official "trigger warning" for this chapter. If you are not into certain dark themes, or depictions of violence, do not read the last section of this chapter. You have been warned.**

* * *

With their internships finally over, the first year students of U.A. returned to class feeling refreshed and motivated to get back to their studies. Despite the veritable monsoon going on outside today this fine Thursday morning, you'd be hard pressed to find a frowning face on the students of class 1-B.

"Man, it's so good to see you guys again." Tokage greeted her friends as she stepped inside the classroom.

"Yeah, how'd your guy's internships go?" Kendou asked.

"Pretty awesome. Running around with Ryukyu and Nejire Hadou was a blast."

"Indeed, Kamui Woods proved to a be a very informative teacher." Shiozaki stated.

"You guys are so lucky that you got picked up by top ranked heroes. All me and Kirishima did was pick up trash and get beat up by Fourth Kind all week." The steel quirk user whined after hearing how good his classmates internships went.

"What about you Itsuka? Was interning with Uwabami as glamorous as we expected."

"Honestly it wasn't bad. Most of week we pretty much acted as Uwabami's entourage, but me and Momo-chan did get to see a bit of action."

"Really, what happened?"

"Well, all of us tagged along with Midoriya and Siphon to do patrols an-"

"Wait, you were with Midoriya?" Tetsutetsu interjected.

"Kind of. The hero he was interning with was friends with Uwabami and we all teamed up on the couple of times we went out and did patrols." She clarified.

"What hero was he with?"

"A guy named Siphon."

"Never heard of him."

"Yeah, apparently he's the kind of guy who like to stay out of spotlight. I was pretty surprised myself."

"I'm just glad that everyone was able to return in one piece, especially after I heard what happened in Hosu?" Shiozaki chimed in.

"Oh yeah, I did hear about a villian attack out there that was lead by those guys that attacked the USJ. I was worried that you got caught up in the middle of that Tetsutetsu."

"Nah, I was in bed by the time all that kicked off. But you should be worried about the class rep from 1-A."

"Huh?"

"You didn't hear?" The silver haired teen looked to Kendou. "Iida was attacked by the 'Hero Killer' that night. Kirishima said that he's still in the hospital after getting stabbed a whole bunch of times."

"Are you serious?!" Kendou asked. Truth be told, this was news to her. Sure she hadn't really checked the news at all over the last few days, but she was still taken aback after hearing all of this. Especially considering that she was with Yaoyorozu up until yesterday. She remembered hearing about the indigo haired teen's older brother getting injured at the hands of the 'Hero Killer' the day of the Sports Festival. But for the both of them to be attacked by the villain made her wonder if the guy had some type of grudge against their family.

"Yeah, they had to send Recovery Girl over to use her quirk on him. He's supposed to be out for the next few weeks."

"Oh no."

"Yes, it's certainly a tragic turn of events. But thankfully no one else suffered a similar fate or worse. We were all truly blessed." The solemn voice of Shiozaki spoke up.

"You got that right." The rest of the group agreed.

* * *

After their morning classes concluded, the quartet of students quickly made their way over to the cafeteria to beat the inevitable rush of students. Due to the seemingly never ending downpour going on outside today the student body had no choice but pack themselves inside. Unfortunately for Kendou and her friends, by the time they got their food almost every single table they could see had already been claimed.

An audible groan came from the mouth of Tetsutetsu when the silver haired teen saw that their usual eating spot had been taken over by a group of third years. "Aw man, it's totally packed in here."

"Yes, I don't really see anywhere for us to sit."

The four of them strolled around the cafeteria for a couple of minutes before Tokage managed to catch their attention.

"Why don't we sit over there with Itsuka's friend?" The green haired girl motioned with her free hand.

"Huh?" Kendou said before tracking the girl's hand towards the back corner of the cafeteria. There, she saw none other than Midoriya already sitting down with an entire table completely to himself.

"I don't know, he doesn't really look like he wants company." Tetsutetsu stated.

"Well it's either that or we eat with Monama and Tsuburaba." Tokage responded. The group all turned their heads to the left to see their blonde haired classmate speaking to Tsuburaba and Kamikiri with a rather sadistic smile on his face. And four open seats right next to him.

With no hesitation the four of them quickly shuffled their way over to Midoriya's table before anyone else could grab those seats.

"Excuse me, are these seats taken?" Shiozaki politely asked the green haired boy once they finally reached to the table.

For a moment, Midoriya looked at the four of them and scanned around to see if there was anywhere else for them to sit. Concluding that there really wasn't anywhere else for them to go, he gave a quick nod before continuing on with his bowl of katsudon.

"Sweet!" Tokage let out a small cheer and wasted no time setting her tray down in the seat right across from him. With Shiozaki taking the seat to her left, Tetsutetsu taking the one to her right and Kendou taking the spot on Midoriya's left.

"Hello, Midoriya-san." Kendou greeted with a smile.

"Hello." He responded.

"So Wonderboy, Itsuka tells us that you guys linked up last week. And that you manage to help take down a few baddies."

"It really wasn't that big of a deal. I honestly didn't do much."

"Yeah right." Kendou scoffed. "I mean you did save me from being crushed by that car the other day. If it wasn't for you I'd be a goner."

"It was nothing. I'm sure you were than capable of handling it yourself."

Tokage let out a quick chuckle after hearing Midoriya try to deflect the praise from her friend. "There's no need to play the humble act dude, we all know that you're great."

A faint blush made its way onto Midoriya's cheeks and for a moment he had a hard time figuring out what to say after something like that. Luckily for him, another female voice interrupted his train of thought before the conversation could continue on.

"U-uh excuse me, is it cool if I sit with you guys? My usual table is already filled." Jiro inquired to the group of students after making her presence known to the table. Pointing one of her earphone jacks towards the open seat next to her classmate.

"No problem, the more the merrier. You're Jiro, right?" Tokage asked the _'earphone jack'_ user.

"Yeah." She replied nonchalantly.

"Go ahead and pop a squat. We don't really get to talk to you 1-A guys a lot anyway, so why waste the opportunity?"

"Thanks," Jiro nodded before setting her tray down and taking the open spot. "So uh, Midoriya. Do you think we can meet up after school today?"

"Yes, that's fine." He quickly responded.

Not one to miss an opportunity to tease someone a bit, a devious grin grew on Tokage's face as she shot both of the 1-A students a sharp look. "Oooh, what do you two have going on after school? You guys gonna meet up and have a little _fun_?"

"What?" Both 1-A students looked to the green haired girl. A tinge of pink immediately forming on both their faces.

"Setsuna, please!" Shiozaki immediately spoke up. "You shouldn't imply something so indecent while people are eating. Or at all."

"C'mon Ibara, I'm just messing around."

"I-it's definitely nothing something like that. Midoriya's just helping tutor me in math." Jiro quickly waved off.

"Let me guess, he's got the highest grade in your class." Kendou slightly grinned after taking a sip of her water.

"No, that would be Yaoyorozu-san." The green haired teen clarified.

"Yeah, but not by a lot."

"Why does that not surprise me?" Kendou joked at Midoriya's expense.

As the conversation continued between the first year students, that is if you even consider it a conversation seeing as Midoriya barely said a word the entire time, a group of 1-A students watched them with rapt attention from the other end of the aisle.

"I guess Jiro would rather sit over there than with the rest of us." Kaminari said to no one in particular.

"Well the table was already full by the time she got her food. So it's not like she had a ton of options." Ashido replied, quick to defend her fellow female classmate.

"Still, I'm surprised that she'd go sit with Midoriya of all people."

"I wouldn't think too hard about it. She did say that he agreed to help tutor her in math. So she probably just went over there to see if that was still going on. I'm still wondering how she got him to agree with that."

"Well it makes sense, he does have second highest in class. Besides, from what she's told us he takes amazing notes so he'd probably be a good teacher."

"Shut up, pikachu! No one cares about shitty Deku or his stupid math notes!" Bakugou shouted towards the electrification quirk user. Drawing the attention of everyone in the surrounding tables.

"Alright dude, chill. No need to get your panties in a wad."

"You wanna say that again?!"

Deciding that now would be a good time to diffuse the situation, Kirishima quickly jumped in to put a stop to the impending madness. "C'mon Bakugou calm down. What's your deal with Midoriya anyway? I get that he beat you in the Sports Festival but you've had a bone to pick with him since day one."

"That's none of your fucking business shitty hair. And Deku just got fucking lucky, you understand!"

"So I guess it was just luck that he also beat Iida and Todoroki as well, huh?" Sero smirked, more than happy to get a rise out of Bakugou if it meant having a bit of entertainment for lunch.

"You're goddamn right! Next time that useless fuck won't be able to stand a chance against me!"

"Whatever you say man."

* * *

The afternoon after school was over reaffirmed for Kendou why exactly she wasn't entirely too thrilled about being selected as the class rep. Originally she had planned on heading over to the dojo to get some much needed training in. But right before classes ended Kan asked her and Tokage to hang back for a while to help him sort out some paperwork. As much as she wanted to decline, she knew that getting all of these forms in order for the class's summer training camp was important.

After about thirty minutes of sorting through twenty large accordion binders containing information on all of her classmates including herself, the duo managed to finally wrap things up. In the middle of all that, Kendou did her best not to peek at any of her classmates private information but curiosity ended up getting the best of her. While organizing the folders she managed to learn some interesting things about the students of 1-B. Things such as Tokage getting her recommendation to U.A. from Midnight. Which made way too much sense after thinking about it for a second.

However, before the two girls from 1-B left for the day, they ended up running into Yaoyorozu and Mina Ashido from class 1-A who were still only halfway through their own mountain of paperwork. The latter deciding to stick around and help out her class vice-rep due to Iida not being at school. Deciding that four sets of hands were better than two, Kendou and Tokage stuck around to help out the two of them so that they could finish things up faster. Much to Yaoyorozu and Ashido's delight.

"Hey Yao-momo, I didn't know we had three recommended students in our class." The pink skinned student said as her blackened eyes scanned across a sheet of paper that she was holding. Catching the attention of the other three girls.

"Excuse me?" Yaoyorozu looked to her classmate.

"Our class has three, and 1-B only has two, right?"

"I believe that you're mistaken Mina-chan. Our class only has myself and Todoroki-san."

"No, it says here that it's three. You, Todoroki and Midoriya."

"What? That can't be right, Midoriya-san was in my group for the entrance exam. He even got the top spot." Kendou said as her and Yaoyorozu walked over to the girl.

Suddenly, the sound of Tokage slamming her fist into her open palm drew their attention. "That's where I recognized him from!" She almost shouted once the realization finally hit her.

"Huh?"

"Yeah, Midoriya was in my group for the recommendations exam. I knew I saw that mop of green hair somewhere before."

"That's certainly odd. Come to think of it, I don't remember seeing you there either Tokage-san." Yaoyorozu stated.

"Well you were in the afternoon group right? The two of us were in the morning group."

"I see."

"That's funny, why would he take the entrance exam if he already got in on recommendations?" Ashido wondered out loud.

"Who knows? I would ask him about it, but more than likely he'd just blow me off."

"Do you mind if I take a look at that Ashido-san?" Kendou ask the acid quirk user before she handed her the sheet of paper. Wasting no time in checking this out for herself.

_Student Information:_

_Name: Izuku Midoriya_

_DOB: July 15, 23xx_

_Age: 15_

_Blood Type: O Neg_

_Quirk: Strength Augmentation_

_Recommendations:_

_1\. Nezu (Primary)_

_2\. Gran Torino (Primary)_

_-a. Toshinori Yagi (Endorsed)_

_Entrance Scores:_

_Written Exam: 100/100_

_Practical Exam: 110 pts (40 Villain, 70 Rescue)_

_'He got a recommendation from the principal? And who are Gran Torino and Toshinori Yagi?'_ Kendou thought to herself. Somewhat amazed by what she was reading.

"So not only did he get first place in the Sports Festival, he get the top spot on both the written and practical exams, and got in on recommendations. Yeah, he definitely is a Wonderboy." Tokage said, more than a bit impressed after looking over the form herself.

"Hmm, I've never even heard of this Gran Torino guy before. Any of you?" The orange haired girl looked to the others, only to receive a few sideways nods from all of three of them.

After the girls quickly put the form back in the appropriate folder and continued organizing the rest, Kendou's mind began to wander back to what she had just learned. It was certainly something that didn't make sense to her. Getting into U.A. on recommendations was a big deal. Based on what she heard from Tokage even their entrance exam was tougher than the one she had to take. So why would Midoriya bother taking both? It was something that she definitely wanted to ask the green haired teen about, but finding out that he had his records looked at by other students probably wouldn't sit well with him. Which was more than understandable. Deciding to put all that to the back of her mind for now, she continued to help the other three finish with the remaining folders. In the mean time she decided that she was going to do a bit of research when she got home.

* * *

Later that night after she finally got back, Kendou took it upon herself to do some digging on the heroes that she learned about earlier that day. Her first attempt proved to be futile seeing as she couldn't find a single thing relating to this Toshinori Yagi person. Even after twenty minutes of searching, not so much as a picture of the man/woman in question popped up. Putting that one on the backburner, she quickly typed the name "Gran Torino" in the search bar and much to her delight there was a lot more information than her previous search. And what she found was quite interesting.

Apparently the 'jet' quirk user used to be a teacher at U.A. a few decades ago, but ended up falling off the map after resigning his position. Still, she couldn't help but wonder why someone who got a recommendation from the principal of all people and a former teacher still took the entrance exam. Before she could postulate any further, the sound of someone knocking on her door drew her attention away from her computer screen.

"Itsuka dear, dinner's almost ready. Can you come down and help me set the table?" Mikoto Kendou, a muscular woman with jet black hair and teal eyes walked into the room.

"Sure thing mom, just give me second."

"What are you looking up?" The woman asked, taking a look at her daughter's computer screen.

"Just a hero that I heard about from one of my friends."

"Oh Gran Torino, now that's a guy I haven't heard about in years."

"You know about him?" The orange haired girl asked.

"Yeah, I met him once when I was a kid."

"Really?"

"Yeah, he saved me when some of my friends and I got caught up in a villain attack on our way home from school. If I remember correctly he use to roll around with this tall, black haired woman who wore a white cape. I wonder whatever to him? He's gotta be pretty old by now."

"Hmm."

"Anyways, that's enough reminiscing about the past. Let's hurry up and get everything ready. Your father should be home from the shop any minute now."

"Yeah, okay. I'll be down in a second."

"No problem dear." The elder Kendou woman waved off before exiting the room.

Deciding to leave all of this for a later date, Kendou clicked out of her browser screen and closed her laptop to head downstairs and get ready for dinner.

* * *

_~First Day of School~_

_A disaster. This was a complete and utter disaster._

_Going to U.A. was a mistake. A mistake that he was going to regret for the next three years of his life. The day had started off so well. He had gotten into his dream school, and he was going to be learning from some of the best heroes out there. This was his first step to becoming the hero that he's always wanted to be. But all of the joy and excitement he had inside of his body left him the moment he first walked into the classroom and saw a pair a wild red eyes boring a hole into his head._

_Of course Bakugou had gotten into U.A.. He would've foolish not to believe that to be a possibility. He knew that was what the blonde haired boy had always been aiming for. But a little part of him hoped that maybe, just maybe he wouldn't have to see his face ever again. Immediately he knew what was going to happen. Eventually, Bakugou would turn everyone against him again. It was only a matter of time. He already noticed the red haired boy with the hardening quirk cozying up to him. It wouldn't be too long before the rest followed suit._

_He tried to play it cool, he really did. He just needed to keep on doing what he had been for the last two years. Just be quiet, avoid drawing any unnecessary attention to himself and not give anyone a chance to pick him apart. Aizawa's quirk apprehension test was a breeze. He got the top spot and easily managed to beat out the black haired girl with the creation quirk. That was more than enough to let everyone know that he wasn't weak. That he belonged here. That they couldn't make him their punching bag._

_Everything was going so well...and then he heard that word. The word that had tormented him ever since everyone found out that he was quirkless. The word that perfectly described his station in life. The word that Bakugou shouted at him in the locker room after their assessment was over, drawing every pair of eyes nearby directly onto him. "Deku", worthless, useless, the perfect word to describe what he was. What he was truly meant to be._

_Somehow he managed to hold his nerve, to keep his cool and shrug it off so that no one could see the weakness that he knew still lingered inside of his soul. He kept up that facade for the rest of the school day. Avoiding the curious and inquisitive gazes that were shot his way. Not saying a word to anyone so that he could avoid the inevitable questions that he knew was on their minds._

_The second the final bell of the day rang, he almost flew out of the classroom to get back home. Truth be told he doesn't remember how he made it back so quickly. He might've ran, he might've even used his 'Full Cowling' to get him there faster. But that didn't matter to him in that moment._

_"M-Mom!" He called out, only to be met with silence._

_"Is anyone here?!" He yelled again. Confirming what he so desperately wished to be true. The last thing he needed was having her around right now. He was met with silence yet again and relished in the fact that she was working late tonight._

_In the blink of an eye he was in his room, locking the door behind him to avoid another mishap._

_Frantically, he opened his dresser drawer and reached his hand into the secret compartment that he had managed to keep from his mother and Toshinori all this time. His fingers fiddled around for a brief moment before reaching their intended target. Pulling out the small white box that contained the only relief that he could provide himself. Quickly, he opened the package and drifted his hand over its contents before pulling out a single steel razor blade from inside._

_Without the slightest bit of hesitation in his heart, he yanked up the clean white school shirt covering his torso. Revealing a veritable train track of scars that he had accumulated over the years. Checking over the site once more to confirm the spot._

_He couldn't wait any longer. He needed the relief right now._

_With a practiced ease, he pressed the blade over his right oblique and let it dance over his skin for a brief second. It wasn't enough, though. So he did it again, and again, and again. And again, until finally he reached that euphoric feeling that he was so desperately looking for. The sensation that finally allowed him to calm his mind and let rationality embrace him once again._

_He knew every time he did this he was letting his mother and Toshinori down. But he couldn't help it at this point. With the way things were right now he couldn't help but think that this was going to become a regular occurrence again._

_As the ritual usually went after he came back to his senses. He placed the white box back into its hidden compartment. Plunging the used blade deep into the trash so that his mother couldn't find it if she found her way into his room when he was gone. With that, he went to the bathroom to clean himself off. Rinsing the fresh stream of blood off of his abdomen and placing a thin bandage over top of it, along with a black t-shirt to further hide any evidence._

_By the time he was finished with the clean up, he made his way back into his room and opened the window to let some fresh air in. Taking in a deep breath before unpacking his backpack and getting started on his **"Hero Analysis for the Future No. 15."**_

_After all, his new classmates had a bunch of cool quirks that he needed to get started on._

* * *

**Author's Notes: Wow, quite a bit just happened. If you couldn't tell by what happened in this chapter, Kendou will definitely be finding out about OfA. When exactly that happens in the story is something I'm still undecided on. I plan on it having a pretty big reveal but the timing is something I'm going to need to sort out. Also, after writing this chapter I realized that Kendou is coming off a bit "stalker-ish". I plan on fixing this, but I just needed a way to get the ball rolling on this plot line. So don't be too mad at me if it seems out of character for her. **

**1\. The next couple of chapters are going to move kind of slow as far as the story is concerned. I need some more time to build up the friendship between the two of them before the training camp arc. But I have class 1-A and class 1-B interacting a lot more than what we see in cannon. What I have planned is going to be interesting to write out. **

**2\. A lot of people have mentioned how the students of 1-A are characterized in this story. To be honest, I just enjoy the idea of everyone kinda badmouthing Midoriya behind his back to show just how much his attitude at the start of school year affected their perceptions of him. But eventually, most of them are going to have a change of heart. Especially with the "Deku-squad" now starting to form. **

**3\. What student matchups do you guys want to see in the story? Who do you guys want to see go up against each other? I have the outline of the next few chapters written out, but I'm having a hard time putting that part together so I'll leave it up to you guys. For plot reasons it won't be Kendou vs Midoriya, Kendou vs Bakugou or Bakugou vs Midoriya, but any other suggestions you guys have will be taken into consideration. **

**4\. Alright, let's talk about the flashback. Yes, that entire scene came completely out of left field, there was a reason for that and why I put it in this chapter specifically and not an earlier one. This was my first time writing anything remotely close to "gore" so let me know what you guys think. Don't expect to see a lot more of those, but there will be a few. Needless to say, the story will have an "M-Rating" from here on out. **

**5\. I wrote that flashback in a way that would give the reader a look into how sporadic and frantic Midoriya's mindset was at that time. So if you thought it seemed random and flowed wired, that was the point. Or at least that's what I was trying to convey. **

**Like always, thanks for reading and don't be afraid to drop a review. **


	13. Full Contact

"So the practical exam is the same as the entrance exam? We'll just be fighting robots again?" Kendou asked Amijiki. The two were currently on the morning train headed to school.

"Yeah, it's pretty straightforward. You just get scrutinized more on battle strategy than how many robots you take out." The third year student replied.

Kendou let out a small sigh at hearing this. "Aw man, that's such a relief. I was starting to get worried."

"I'm sure you'll do fine Itsuka."

"Thanks for the words of encouragement. So how are classes going for you?"

"Pretty well. We're just focusing on our work studies this semester before we buckle down to study for the pro licence test at the end of the year."

"Well I wish you the best of luck. I heard it only has a twenty percent pass rate for first attempts."

"Yeah, it's pretty terrifying." The indigo haired teen sheepishly said before shoving his head into the wall of the train car. Sometimes Kendou couldn't help but wonder how such an introverted guy like Amajiki could be one of the top hero candidates in all of Japan.

* * *

Friday after lunch, the students of both 1-A and 1-B found themselves standing in the large open space of the TDL, more commonly known as Gym Gamma. It was the first time that they were participating in any type of training that involved both of their classes. Admittedly, they were all slightly confused because none of them were aware of the apparent change in their schedule.

Looking around, Kendou did her best to get a good look at the students of her "rival class". Most of them were huddled together, talking and asking about what they could be doing today. But she also noticed that Midoriya and Todoroki were both standing off to the side away from any other student. Kendou herself was standing with her usual group of friends.

"Alright kiddies, listen up!" Vlad King shouted to the students, catching their attention.

"As I'm sure all of you can tell by now, today's class will feature both first year hero course classes. Due to recent events, we have decided to slightly adjust your training schedule. Your classes will also be intermingling with each other over the next few school days. So far all of you have become accustomed to each other's abilities in your short time together, so we're going to disrupt that by having you face those whose quirks you haven't seen yet." Aizawa began explaining after crawling out of his sleeping bag.

"Today you students will be practicing hand-to-hand combat without the use of your quirks." Kan continued on.

Kendou's ears perked up almost immediately after hearing this. So far in class they barely touched on the topic of hand-to-hand training. Most of everything up until now was geared towards quirk mastery and basic hero information. To her knowledge the only other people in her class with any real martial arts background was Shoda, who was a boxing fanatic and Rin, who used to study kung-fu. This was a rare opportunity for her to really stand out amongst her classmates. Needless to say she had a feeling that she was going to enjoy today quite a bit.

"Being honest, this is an area that most of you are severely lacking in. So I suggest that you all make sure that you get something out of it. So far you've only been taught the basics up until this point, now you're going to put what you've learned into practice." Aizawa practically groaned.

"All of you have been handed a tab with either a one or two on it. Pair up with anyone who has a number opposite of yours and form into a circle around the gym floor. For this exercise you are going to spar with each other for a total of five minutes. Once you hear the whistle, one's will stay put and two's will rotate to the next person. Any questions?"

The hand of Honenuki shot up, grabbing the teachers attention. "What are the rules?" He asked.

"No blows to the head or below the belt, no biting, no scratching, no eye-gouging, no excessive use of force and obviously no quirk usage." Kan clarified.

"If that's all, then let's get started."

The first three sparring iterations for Kendou were relatively easy. She had pinned Awase in a matter seconds, had almost no challenge from the blonde haired boy from 1-A named Aoyama after a landing a pretty solid punch to the chest and practically threw Sero across the matted floor after he made an attempt to put her into a submission hold. As much as the girl disliked fueling her own ego, she couldn't help but start to feel the adrenaline kick in after beating everyone that came her way almost effortlessly. She was in her element and was starting to get what her sensei had called a "martial arts high".

When Kan blew the whistle for their groups to rotate, Kendou was pretty pumped when her next opponent stepped up to the plate. This was the one that she was looking forward to. As she eyed the green haired boy that walked up next to her, she felt her heart rate jump a little bit.

"How's it going Midoriya-san?"

"Greetings Kendou-san."

"Y'know, I was kinda hoping that I'd get a chance to go against you. I have a feeling that you're a pretty good fighter."

"I see, I hope that I don't disappoint you."

Before the whistle blew, the two students took up their stances and Kendou wasted no time in sizing him up. Inspecting him, she began to go over her plan of action. Midoriya had the obvious advantage in size (seeing as he stood a solid seven centimeters over her) and strength (for obvious reasons). She also took note of the weird stance that he took. His feet were squared, but his left hand was extended out with his palm facing forward and his right hand was unusually close to his face. From their run-in earlier in the semester, she knew that he had some knowledge of fighting. But she had no idea to what extent.

One thing that struck her as odd was the fact that she couldn't really get a read on him. Throughout her many years of training, she had developed somewhat of skill to feel the strength of a possible opponent. Almost like she could sense their level ability. But looking at Midoriya, she was getting nothing. You would expect a guy like him to be practically radiating power, but there was nothing there.

She quickly shook that out of her head and went back to formulating her strategy. If she was going to win this, she needed to make the first move and catch him off guard. What she lacked in reach and strength, she made up for in nimbleness and hand speed. However, if there was one thing that she had learned over the years, it was that strength enhancement users always relied on brute force.

The second she heard the whistle, the orange haired girl quickly lunged forward on her lead foot and went straight for a right jab to the chest. Before making contact, Midoriya managed to side step her to his right and swatted her hand away before attempting a right uppercut. Taking the advantage in his loss of momentum, she countered by hitting the back of his trailing leg with her shin, knocking him onto a knee. But just as quickly as he fell to the ground, Midoriya shot out his left leg and spun back up to a standing position behind her and attempted to force his right hand under her arm.

She managed to swim through the attempted hold by dropping her torso down while simultaneously reaching for his extended hand in hopes of being able to throw him. However, the green haired boy was able to use that momentum to his advantage by flowing with the move and landing on both feet before quickly getting back into his stance and facing her.

"Not bad." Kendou smirked before adopting her stance once again, feeling a sudden rush of exhilaration. Realizing that this wasn't going to be as easy as she thought, she decided to turn things up a bit.

With another good lunge, the orange haired girl got in close to him before shooting her left leg out with a powerful rounding kick. Midoriya barely had enough time to throw up his guard before her shin made contact with his forearm. Taking advantage of her lack of stable footing, he quickly wrapped his right arm around her leg and tossed her off to the side to get some distance. But Kendou managed to land right back onto her feet. Immediately after, the kid gloves came off.

The students erupted into an exchange of kicks and punches. Despite his apparent speed, Midoriya failed to get a solid blow while Kendou landed more than a few well placed kicks to the boy's thighs and one forceful jab to the chest. For a brief second, the two backed away from each other to get some space and catch their breath. In that moment, Kendou decided to do a move that she knew would give her the edge.

Once again she dashed towards him. But this time, less than half a meter away she dropped her shoulder and gut punched the boy with her right hand. The second Midoriya dropped down, Kendou took the opportunity to jump right above his shoulders. In one quick motion, she grabbed the back of his head, wrapped both legs over his shoulders, and used that momentum to bring him down to the ground. The moment she felt contact with the padded floors, she propped up her knee and shifted into the full-mount position.

"So, do you yield Midoriya-san?" She looked down at him while pinning his left shoulder with her forearm.

Instead of a response, what Kendou received was Midoriya using his free hand and all of his available strength to pull her in close. In one swift motion, he straightened out his left leg, propped up his right knee behind her back and shot his hips straight up. Causing the both of them to roll to the left. With their positions now reversed, and Kendou momentarily thrown off guard after somehow being put onto her back, Midoriya brought his left knee up to chest height. Pinning down her thigh while using his body weight to hold her left arm over her stomach while keeping her right hand above her head. Just before Kendou could counter by trying a swimming maneuver to break his hold, the voice of Sekijiro Kan brought her back to the outside world.

"Midoriya, Kendou, that's enough!" The white haired man half-shouted for possibly the third time in the last fifteen seconds.

"Huh/What?" Both students immediately looked up to see the entire class and their teachers staring at them. Also noticing that they were a good four or five meters away from where they had originally started.

"Kan-sensei blew the whistle about a minute ago but you guys just kept going at it." Jiro explained.

"We were gonna try and stop you, but it was honestly too much fun just watching." Tetsutetsu said, looking at the two students with a bit of jealousy for not being able to take part in something like that himself.

"That spinning head takedown thing was the manliest thing I've seen all day." Kirishima said, a slight tear in his eye.

"Yeah, it was like you two were dancing!" Ashido seemingly cheered.

"Now that's the kind of effort that I want to see from each and every one of you! You all should follow these two's example." Kan piped up with a bit of pride in his voice. He planned on stopping them a while ago but was too busy enjoying the display.

"However, please make sure that you're paying attention to the whistle." Aizawa flatly interjected.

Never one to miss an opportunity, from the other side of the gym Tokage let out a low whistle and shouted in the direction of her best friend. "Get a room you two!"

It was in that moment that Midoriya and Kendou realized the position that they were actually in. The both of them were still on the ground, lightly sweating, with Midoriya practically laying on top of Kendou and their heads dangerously close to one another. Both of their faces began heating up before scrambling to pick themselves up and get back onto their feet. Neither one really wanting to look the other in the face in hopes of avoiding any further embarrassment.

"Alright, all of you take a break and be back here in five minutes."

With that, the students broke from their current pairings and took the opportunity to mingle with each other for a bit.

"Sorry about that Midoriya-san. I didn't mean to get into it like that." Kendou apologized.

"It's fine, I'm equally to blame."

"So if you don't mind me asking, what kind of martial arts do you practice? And where do you train at?"

"I uh…" The green haired boy started before looking away, still a bit embarrassed as he tried to piece together the right words. "I've never trained in any type of dojo, a-actually. I g-guess you could say that I'm mostly 'self-taught'."

A surprised look came onto the orange haired girl's face at his response. "Are you serious?"

"Yeah, s-sorry if that wasn't the answer you were looking for."

"No, it's just surprising. To be that good without any formal training, is impressive."

"Oh, okay." The boy quickly replied. Suddenly an idea popped into Kendou's head.

"Hey, Midoriya-san."

"Y-yeah?"

"Would you mind being my sparring partner?" She asked, taking a moment to see the confused look on his face. "I've barely had enough time to go to my dojo ever since school started. And I'd really appreciate having someone to train with."

"Why me?"

"Because after all that, I'd say you're more than a good opponent. Plus we kinda ended in a draw so I need to try and get my dignity back."

"When w-would you want to do this?"

"How about today after school? I can reserve one of the training rooms. If you're free that is."

Midoriya pondered this proposal for a few seconds. From what he knew of the girl, she was an avid martial arts fan. Like he said, he never had the opportunity to receive any formal training and the prospect of learning from something other than youtube videos and brawling with his mentors was a welcome one. Plus his mom and Yagi would be pretty happy to hear that he was participating in some type of afterschool activity with another student.

"Alright."

"Cool, how about we meet up right after classes are over?"

"Okay."

After the remaining time had passed, Kan blew his whistle again and the students quickly reformed and shifted over into their new matchups. Jiro shakily walked up to Kendou while Midoriya shifted over to Tokoyami.

"That was quite an impressive display, Midoriya. I see that you are well versed in non-quirk related combat as well. I ask that you go easy on me during this round." The raven headed student said to his classmate.

"Likewise." The green haired boy stated just before the whistle blew.

* * *

"...with Ojiro's lack of versatility and Yaoyorozu's inability to make spur of the moment decisions, I'll be the one to test them. I'll start by erasing her quirk and see how the two proceed from there. It will be a suitable challenge for the both of them." Aizawa stated to the other staff members.

Currently the faculty of U.A.'s first year hero course were discussing the lineup for their upcoming new end of semester exam. Due to the changing of the times, they had all decided to switch things up this year.

A short smile came from the fury face of Nezu as he gave the nocturnal hero an approving nod. "Yes, I agree with your reasoning."

"Now onto our final matchup, Midoriya, Todoroki and Bakugou. Seeing as we're short one student due to Iida still being on recovery, this will be the only team of three. In this case, I didn't put them together based on ability or classwork. I went with relationship."

"Would you mind explaining Shouta?" Midnight asked.

"Let's start with Midoriya. Objectively speaking, he's the top student in the class so far. To be honest, I feel as though he's barely been challenged up until this point. I'd even go so far as to say that none of the first year hero course students can beat him in a one on one fight. But despite his obvious ability, his reluctance to socialize with his classmates is still a problem. Not only that, but he's already shown a tendency to try and do as much of the work as he can by himself with very little input from the others. Having him on a team of three will show whether or not he can force himself out of that habit."

"I see." Poweloader nodded.

"Then we have Todoroki. He's doing well, generally speaking. But he also relies too much on brute force. Simply put, he's overconfident in the ability of his quirk. He is also severely lacking when it comes to hand-to-hand combat ability. In a perfect scenario I would've paired him up with Yaoyorozu but that's not the hand that we were dealt. And when it comes to his ability to work with others he's not that far behind Midoriya. Furthermore, I've noticed a somewhat healthy rivalry start to form between the two. I'm sure that the both of them would have no issue in coordinating attacks. But that's still up in the air."

"I can agree with that." Ectoplasm stated.

"Finally, we have Bakugou. I don't need to tell all of you that his attitude is still a major problem. But, despite this fault his overall performance in class is still rather impressive. He's shown great versatility and control over his quirk, and is particularly efficient during practical exercises. The biggest problem however, is that for whatever reason he absolutely hates Midoriya. I have a few theories as to why that is, but I'll keep those to myself for now. On top of that, he isn't too fond of Todoroki as well. I have no doubt that when the test begins his ego will be the first obstacle for the three of them to overcome if they want to pass."

"So you're putting three students with teamwork issues and strained relationships together to see how much of a circus it becomes?" Midnight inquired.

"In a nutshell. We will also be amending the rules to their test. For this group to pass, two of them need to cross the finish line instead of just one. That will force them to have to work out that extra detail all while dealing with their opponent. I'll be leaving them to you, All Might." Aizawa took a moment to look at the blonde haired skeleton, taking in the surprised expression on his face. "You have the power to overwhelm all three of them. I'm also aware that you have a soft spot for Midoriya seeing as you've been training him for some time now."

All of the teachers, minus Nezu shot the number one hero a slurry of quizzical looks. This was news to them.

"Simply put...you're the best one to ruffle his feathers and give an accurate assessment of how he performs. Please ensure that they all learn something."

_'You're more observant than I give you credit for, Aizawa.'_ Yagi thought.

"I have no issues with this matchup Aizawa-kun. Personally, I'll be looking forward to how this one plays out. Now then, let's move on to class 1-B." Nezu spoke up, looking towards the white haired blood themed hero.

"Yes, the first matchup I have will be Kendou and Fukidashi against Ectoplasm…" Kan began speaking as he went down the battle roster for his students.

* * *

"Y'know, for someone without any formal training you're pretty good." Kendou told her new sparring partner. Taking advantage of their small break to wipe the sweat off of her face and get a sip of water.

"Thank you." Midoriya responded in between breaths.

"It's either that or I'm more out of practice than I thought." She continued, a joking smirk on her face.

"O-oh."

"So if you've never been trained, where did you learn to fight?"

"There's a person that I used to train with before I got into U.A.. We never took the time to learn any real martial arts...so I just watch a lot of tutorial videos." He replied, a slight tinge of pink on his cheeks. Knowing how lame that must have sounded to someone who was actually a real martial artist.

"Seriously?"

"Y-yes."

Although she didn't say it out loud, Kendou assumed that he was referring to the hero, Gran Torino. From what she remembered from her search, the guy was a pretty solid brawler back in the day. Learning from someone like him must've been pretty interesting.

Once their break was over, the two students continued on with their sparring session for another twenty minutes or so. The more the two went at it, the more Kendou got used to Midoriya's fighting style. If she had to describe it, it was essentially of a mix between street fighting and some basic taekwondo. It lacked any real technique but was good for quickly overpowering an opponent that was weaker than you.

After finishing up their round and settling on another break, Kendou used the opportunity to make another proposal to her sparring partner.

"We should do this more often. If you want, I can teach you some basic stuff. You have the power but your form is a bit shaky." The orange haired girl told him from her spot on the floor, stretching out her legs to avoid cramping.

"I'd appreciate that."

The two sat in silence for a few minutes before the sound of the training room door drew their attention. In walked an almost anorexic blonde haired man with blue eyes and sunken cheeks. It took her second before Kendou recognized him as the same guy that she saw Midoriya with following the Sports Festival.

"Young Izuku, I was wondering if you'd still be here." The man looked to Midoriya. Kendou could swear that she knew from somewhere but she couldn't quite put her finger on it.

"Did you need something, Toshinori-san?"

_'Toshinori?'_ She thought after hearing the man's name. Taking a leap of faith, this was probably the Toshinori Yagi person that she had so much trouble finding any information on.

"No, I just came to check up on you. Your mother was starting to worry after you didn't answer your phone."

"Oh, I let her know that I was staying back to train with a classmate. But I guess I forget to tell her how long I was going to be gone."

"It's nothing to worry about." The blonde haired man waved off before switching his gaze over to his sucessor's training partner. "I hope young Izuku here hasn't troubled you too much, young Kendou."

"Oh uh, no sir." She replied.

"Good to hear. Well, I'll let you two get back to it. Have a nice rest of your day."

"You too." Both students said as they watched him retreat out the door.

"So, who is that guy?"

"Oh uh...h-he works for the principal." Midoriya shakily replied. Going with the cover story that everyone had agreed upon if his predecessor was ever seen by anyone in his normal form. "H-he's also one of my trainers."

"Really?" She asked. Not wanting to sound rude, but it was hard to imagine someone of his stature being able to keep up with someone like Midoriya. But nowadays with all types of quirks running around it was unwise to judge a book by it's cover.

"Y-yeah. He was the one who helped me clean up Dagoba beach. Well...he just drove the stuff to the city dump. I did all of the heavy lifting."

"Oh, y'know it's pretty cool that you got trained by someone who works for U.A. before school started. But, considering the fact that it's _you_ I shouldn't be surprised."

An awkward laugh came from Midoriya. Even after all this time he still wasn't used to receiving compliments of any kind. Even if they were pretty minor.

Kendou quickly stood up and offered the boy a hand to help him off the ground. "Well, I guess we should call it quits for today. It's getting pretty late."

"Right." He said, accepting the kind gesture.

The duo wasted no time in cleaning off the floor mats and grabbing their things.

"Have a good day, Kendou-san." Midoriya told her with a polite bow.

"You too, Midoriya-kun." She shot back, only realizing what she said after the words came out of her mouth. For a brief moment the two looked at each other. Kendou had no idea what compelled her to use that honorific with him, but decided to just roll with it to avoid an awkward situation.

"R-right" He said before turning on his heels and making his way down the hallway. Hoping that the orange haired girl didn't see the shade of pink that quickly grew on his face.

* * *

For the students of class 1-A, Saturday morning proved to be a more somber affair than their usual weekend antics. A small group consisting of Jiro, Yaoyorozu, Kirishima, Ashido, Kaminari and Asui had all decided to pay a visit to their class rep who was still bedridden at Musutafu General Hospital. Originally they all planned on heading straight there, but Ashido had the idea to bring the engine quirk user some flowers and a "get well" card to show their support. Luckily, Yaoyorozu heard from Kendou about a pretty nice flower shop that just so happened to be on the way to their destination.

"Welcome to the Yamanaka Flower Shop. How may we- Jiro-chan, hey!" Rayet Yamanaka greeted the hero course students after they all walked in the door. More than happy to see that a former classmate of her's was with them.

"Oh, hey Yamanaka. How have you been?" The _'earphone jack'_ user greeted her.

"Pretty good, congrats on getting into U.A."

"Thanks."

"You two know each other, gero?" Asui inquired.

"Yeah, we went to middle school together."

"That's cool."

"Yeah, so how may we be of service to you today?"

"Yes, we're looking to put together a bouquet for our friend. He's currently recovering in the hospital and we wanted to let him know that we're thinking about him." Yaoyorozu explained, taking in the wide array of flowers that the shop had on display.

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. Do you guys know what you're looking for?"

"Not really, we were hoping that you could assist us in putting together a proper arrangement."

"I see…" The wheelchair bound girl tapped a finger to her chin. "Well when it comes to stuff like this, sunflowers are usually everyone's go-to. You can even add a few more specimens to add some color."

"That sounds wonderful."

"Awesome, let me see if we have any more in the back." The girl said before rolling off in the direction of an open doorway near the other end of the store. "Mom, do we have any sunflowers ready to go?!"

"Yeah, I just cut a few this morning. Midoriya-kun, can you take that crate over there up front? I'm kind of busy with these roses right now." An older female voice replied.

"Sure."

After a few seconds, out walked the familiar sight of their green haired classmate. He was holding a crate of freshly picked sunflowers in one hand with a large plastic barrel labeled "larkspur seeds" thrown over the opposite shoulder. Midoriya paused for a second once he recognized his classmates. He looked the group over before locking eyes with Jiro.

"Hey." He said to the purple haired girl.

"What's up?" She nonchalantly replied.

Without another word, he walked over to a nearby table and set down the crate of yellow flowers. Not bothering to acknowledge the other students in the room.

"Thank you, Midoriya-kun." Yamanka told him with a grin.

"Midoriya, you work here?" Kirishima asked, still surprised to run into his quiet classmate in a flower shop of all places.

"No, he just helps us out from time to time. It's nice having the added muscle around."

"I see."

"Let me know if you need anything else." He dryly said to the blonde haired girl before turning back around to make his way back over to help out the shop owner.

"Midoriya-san." Yaoyorozu called out to him. "We're all going to go visit Iida-san this morning. Would you like us to add your name to the card?"

"No." Was his quick and rather sharp reply.

"Why not? You're his classmate too." The annoyed voice of Ashido spoke up.

"For real, have you even gone to visit him at all?" Kaminari chimed in.

"No point."

"Why not?"

A slightly indignant look grew on the green haired boy's face as he turned back around to glare at his classmates. "Because...it's best to be visited by friends. I'm not his friend, so I doubt my presence would be welcomed." Was all he said before walking off, leaving the group rather stunned at the bluntness of his response.

"Jerk." Ashido hissed under her breath.

The wheelchair bound girl was quick to speak up, hoping to avoid any further tension. "Don't mind him, he had a rough night and has been helping us out all morning. He's just a bit tired."

"Yeah, whatever."

After about twenty minutes of getting their arrangement in order, which consisted of a large number of sunflowers accompanied by some red roses and white daisies. The students of class 1-A took their leave and made their way over to the hospital. The moment the group left out the door, Yamanaka made her way to the back where Midoriya just finished loading up another barrel of seeds.

"They seem nice." She said to him.

"Yeah, I guess."

"They're not wrong though, you should try and go visit your classmate."

"Like I said, it's best for him to have his friends by his side."

"I guess you're right." She relented, somewhat agreeing with his point.

For a brief moment, the wheelchair bound girl watched him load up more supplies onto some nearby shelves. However, a somber look grew on her usually cheery face when she noticed the light stain of red seeping through the boy's grey t-shirt over his right hip. A sight that wasn't unfamiliar to her.

* * *

**Author's Notes: Longer chapter this week. I honestly didn't plan on this chapter being this long but once again the story pretty much just wrote itself out. I kind of ran away with the whole Midoriya vs Kendou bit. It was my first time writing out a non-quirk fight scene so I wanted to make sure that it was good. I hope you guys liked it.**

**1\. I wanted to use this chapter to give a little more personality to Kendou. Normally she's a pretty confident person, but when it comes to martial arts I'd like to think that she uses that as her time to shine. Martials arts for all intense and purposes is her lane, so naturally she'd get a little more cocky and self-confident when it came to stuff like that. But I wanted to make sure that she doesn't come off as egotistical.**

**2\. When it comes to Midoriya and Kendou's fighting styles, I have a pretty good idea of how I want their approaches to be. Kendou is obviously more skilled with real training and in my mind she would be more of an offensive and technical fighter (The same is true in cannon). On the flip side, Midoriya is a more defensive fighter who is less skilled but stronger. I teased this in the "Sport Festival Arc" by showing that Midoriya is never the one to make the first move, he prefers to let the fight come to him. On top of that, since he was trained by All Might and Gran Torino, his preferred style is to simply overwhelm his opponent as quickly as possible. Somewhat of a combo of how the two pros can be seen fighting in cannon.**

**3\. The end of semester exams are coming up in a few chapters. I decided to just let you guys know what the big matchup is going to be now instead of later. Due to Iida still being out of school after the whole Stain situation, I used that as my justification to switch up how the exams are going to be done. I won't spoil it, but expect the All Might vs Midoriya, Todoroki and Bakugou fight to be a complete shitshow. I'll let you guys speculate on how it's going to go down.**

**4\. I wanted to put a little "fluff" in this chapter so I went with Kendou and Midoriya having their first "bonding" moment come from them training. This is the avenue that I'll use as the base of their friendship. Expect a few more of these throughout the rest of the story. And rest assured there are going to be quite a few funny/cute moments from the two of them.**

**5\. I gave Midoriya a little height boost in this story because since he started his training earlier than in cannon, his body would've changed a bit more. Instead of standing at 5'5", he's now 5'8".**

**6\. I'll be on vacation all next week so don't expect any updates during that time.**

**Like always, thank you for reading and don't be afraid to drop a review.**


	14. Training Day

Not too long ago, Midoriya would've never imagined having one of his classmates over at his house. Or anyone, for that matter. But after their usual study location at the library had been booked by someone else, Midoriya and Jiro agreed upon taking their weekend session to his home of all places. Needless to say, a certain green haired women almost broke out into tears when her son brought home a friend for the first time in god knows how long. Luckily, Midoriya was able to maintain a decent level of etiquette all while making sure that no matter what, his purple haired classmate did not set foot into his room.

"Thanks again for helping me out Midoriya. This stuff hasn't seemed nearly as hard ever since we started studying together." She said as she closed her textbook.

"It's not problem, Jiro-san."

By this time the two had been hitting the books for well over an hour and were taking a much needed break. Well, much needed for Jiro seeing as they just finished math and were about to get to work on English.

"Y'know, the others were pretty surprised when I told them that you were helping me study."

"I wouldn't doubt it."

"Yeah, Mina was almost certain that I was messing with her. She even asked me if I paid you." She sneered.

"I see."

"I think most of the class is still hung up on the fact that you don't talk to anyone. I mean, I know that you're a cool guy. But everyone else is a different story. Honestly, I think most of them are just jealous of you."

"It's fine. I know how I come off to others."

"Yeah, you do come off as kind of an asshole." She shot back with a playful smirk. "But it could be worse, you could be loud and annoying like Bakugou."

"Yeah, I guess."

"I still don't get why people like hanging around that guy. I don't even think I've heard him call anyone by their actual name."

Before the green haired teen could fumble his way through an awkward reply, the Midoriya matriarch made her way into the living room with some refreshments. It was a simple plate filled with assorted fruits and toasted bagels. Evidently, the family of two were the types who indulged in "clean eating".

"Here you two go. I know that you're hard at work with your studying so I thought you might want some snacks." Inko told the both of them, doing everything she could to fight back a wave of tears.

"Thank you Midoriya-san."

"Oh you can just call me Inko dear." She waved off.

"Oh uh, alright."

"Let me know if you need anything else." The woman said as she made her way out of the living room to give the students their space.

_'I can't believe that my baby is actually making friends!'_

* * *

"So Itsuka, how was your date with Wonderboy? You guys got pretty hot and heavy on Friday, right?" Tokage asked Kendou, putting absolutely no effort into lowering her voice in the slightest.

"What?!" Every other girl in the locker room turned around.

"Setsuna!" Kendou half-shouted.

"What? It was just a simple question."

"H-how can you imply something impure with no shame?!" Shiozaki chastised her. Something that was becoming a very common occurrence between the two of them.

In that moment, Tsunotori practically threw herself into the locker adjacent to Kendou, looking at her with a gleam in her eyes. "Wait, are you guys discussing about Midoriya-san? Oh wow, is Kendou-chan making love-friends with him? Very exciting thing!"

"What?"

"Timeout!" Kendou definitely shouted this time, putting her hands into a "T" shape. "Before this nonsense goes on any further, it was not a "date" and we are definitely not "love-friends". I'd barely even classify us as friends."

"C'mon girl, you don't have to lie to us." Tokage playfully elbowed her. "At the very least you guys seem like you're pretty cool with each other."

"Setsuna is right, Itsuka. You two do seem rather friendly. Especially if you elected to spend your Friday training with him."

"Like I said, it was just a sparring session. I've barely had enough time to make it to the dojo recently and he's a good training partner."

"So, how much time did you two spend rolling around on the floor in a sweaty pile of-"

Before Tokage could finish whatever lewd comment she was about to say, Kendou raised her right hand above her head and activated her quirk. Shooting the green haired girl a very disapproving look.

"Alright, alright, I'll stop. Jeez, sue a girl for having a little fun." She put her hands up in defeat.

"Thank you. Now let's all hurry up and get out there before Kan-sensei tears us a new one?"

* * *

"It's good to see you back, Iida-san. I was really worried about you after I heard what happened." Kendou said to the newly returned class rep of 1-A. He seemed to be in good spirits despite still having his left arm in a cast and sling.

"Yes, although I am still unable to participate in regular training for the next couple of weeks, I am grateful to be back in school with my classmates. Thank you for your concern, Kendou-san." His right arm mechanically waving in the air.

"I am here...to teach!" the voice of All Might boomed after finally arriving in the viewing room, striking a dramatic and heroic pose. Despite being well into their studies, it was still pretty shocking to everyone that the number one hero was one of their teachers. "Today all of you will be engaging in one-on-one combat drills. The rules are pretty simple students. You will be given a fifteen minute time limit to subdue or capture your opponent. Anything goes as long as you don't use excessive force on one another. The area that you see on the monitors before you will be your battle ground. You will also be matched up against a student from a different class." The gigantic blonde haired man explained.

"Now then, our first match will be young Midoriya versus young Tokage!"

Tokage gave the boy a toothy yet confident smirk. "Alright Wonderboy, I hope you brought your A-game."

"R-right." He shot back nonchalantly.

The two students grabbed their ear pieces and made their way to the designated battle area with Midnight escorting them. The second they were out of earshot the class erupted into murmurs as they began placing their bets on the outcome of the first match.

"So who do you guys think is going to win?" Kaibara asked to the group.

"Midoriya, obviously." Kaminari replied, a few other 1-A students nodded in agreement.

"I don't know, both of them are recommended students right? That means that they should be on the same level." Ojiro looked around. Evidently that little tidbit of information had gotten out, more than likely thanks to Ashido. Kendou had heard that the pink skinned girl had a habit of not being able to keep a secret.

"I'm sure it will be quite the impressive affair." Tokoyami gave his thoughts.

"Well, Tokage-san is certainly at the top of our class right now. And I am to presume that the same goes for Midoriya-san as well." Shishida spoke up, adjusting his glasses.

"If you think that shitty Deku is fucking better than me then you have another thing coming fur face!" Bakugou was quick let his opinion be known.

_'Is he seriously always like this?'_ Every student in 1-B deadpanned.

"You 1-A losers have yet to see what Tokage-san is capable of. She's going to mop the floor with that arroga-" Before Monama's oncoming tirade could go on any further, the copy quirk user received a chop to the back of the neck courtesy of his class rep.

_'Is he seriously always like this?'_ Every student in 1-A deadpanned.

"Thank you Itsuka-chan." Yaoyorozu stated.

"Tokage has a pretty wild quirk though. I want to see how Midoriya tries to handle it."

"Yeah, he can't just punch his way out of this one." Another 1-A student echoed.

* * *

"Alright Wonderboy, you ready to get down and dirty?" Tokage said to her green haired counterpart.

_'Seriously, does everything she says have to be so sexual?'_ The quirk inheritor grimaced internally.

**"Begin!"** The voice of All Might shouted through their earpieces, signalling the start of the match.

Both students stood motionless for a few seconds as they sized the other up, waiting for the other to make the first move. In those short few moments, Midoriya rapidly reviewed that he knew about Tokage. During the Sports Festival she said that she could split her body into roughly twenty pieces, but that could have changed recently. On top of that she's already demonstrated an impressive level of control over each individual piece that she spilt into. It went without saying that the girl was definitely a tough opponent to deal with.

Just before Midoriya's thoughts could wander any further, Tokage quickly jumped into action. In the blink of an eye, she separated herself into roughly fifteen sections and swarmed Midoriya at a furious speed. In response, he powered his _'Full Cowling'_ up to seven percent and analyzed the swarm of blue flying around him. Tokage's plan looked to be simple, just overwhelm him and attack where his guard was down.

Deciding not to let her get the chance, Midoriya jump straight up into the air and exited the twister. However, the moment his foot hit the ground he found himself surrounded once more.

_'I guess I can add speed to her skillset as well.'_

He quickly threw his guard up and prepared for a strike. Judging by how she was still moving her body in a clockwise rotation, it was safe to assume that any attack would come from his blind spot. Suddenly, Midoriya felt a force hit him on the top of his head, causing him drop down onto a knee. However the moment he made contact with the concrete, he felt another blow the right side of his face.

* * *

"Wait...she actually managed to hit him?" Hagakure shouted in disbelief.

"Huh? What's the big deal" Kendou asked, taking in the surprised faces of the majority of the 1-A students.

"That's the first time we've ever seen anyone land a hit on Midoriya during practical training. Well aside from you." Jiro told her.

"That's impossible."

Kendou's eyes scanned over the group of 1-A students who were all nodding their heads.

This was more than alarming news to other hero class. Come to think of it, the orange haired girl couldn't remember anyone actually landing a blow on Midoriya during the Sports Festival either. Which was strange considering that after the final match, the boy had his arm bandaged up when she ran into him in the hall.

_'I wonder what that's all about.'_ She pondered.

"Not gonna lie, that was so satisfying to watch." Sero said with a smirk and a few agreeing nods. Something else that Kendou took a mental note of.

* * *

Immediately the quirk inheritor looked up and was shocked to see more pieces of Tokage's body in the air a few meters above him. The pieces were smaller but if his guess was right, she was now split into at least thirty different sections.

_'The first swarm was a distraction. When did she even split her body up?'_

"What's wrong Wonderboy? You seem a little overwhelmed." Tokage's head taunted from above him.

Before he could even think of a response, Midoriya's vision suddenly went black as he felt the sensation of something wrapping around his head. Evidently Tokage had used a few pieces of her body to take away his sight.

_'I've got him now. He can't hit what he can't see.'_

The green haired girl wasted no time in pelting him from all different directions. At most she had about two minutes left before she ran out of juice so she needed to end this quickly. Unfortunately for her, her opponent had other plans.

_'I still haven't gotten the hang of this one yet, and it leaves me really nauseous afterwards. But I don't really have a choice.'_ He thought to himself before powering up to twelve percent. That should be more than enough to successfully use this move without flinging her body every which way.

**"Oklahoma Smash!"** He howled as he began twisting his body into a miniature tornado.

"What he he-" Tokage shouted as she got swept up into vortex. The force of the wind not allowing her to put her body back together. This only lasted for a few seconds before the spinning died down and Tokage, along with the rest of her scattered body parts, fell to the ground. A look of absolute exhaustion on her face.

**"Setsuna Tokage is unable to continue, Izuku Midoriya is the winner!"** The voice of All Might said into their ears.

* * *

"Did he just turn himself into a Tornado?" Tetsutetsu shouted with wide eyes.

"Isn't that one of All Might's moves?" Kamikiri looked to Tsuburaba for confirmation.

"Of course he can do something like that."

"I'm not even surprised at this point." Ojiro seemed to whine.

"Overpowered asshole." Mineta whispered under his breath.

* * *

"Aw man, I actually thought that I had you." Tokage groaned after her re-attaching her head to her shoulders.

"You did very well Tokage-san. Your quirk is incredible."

"Thanks. Hey, can you give me a hand putting myself back together? Usually all of my pieces just gravitate back towards me but I'm kind of gassed right now so I need some help."

"Uh, sure." He replied.

Midoriya quickly bent down and started picking up random parts of his opponent's body. However, he only got about five pieces in before Tokage let out a noise that was somewhere in between a squeak and giggle.

"Whoa there, Wonderboy. I don't mind you copping a feel but at least take a girl out on a date first."

"What?"

"That piece that you're holding is my boob." She said as if there was nothing wrong with that.

Almost instantly the boy's face lit up like a christmas tree as he looked down at the piece of flesh, taking a second to register that he was indeed holding what she had said. "T-Tokage-san, I-I'm s-sorry...I didn't-"

"Haha...It's fine, I was just messing with you."

* * *

In the viewing room Kendou and a few other girls from her class facepalmed after hearing the exchange between the two of them. She wanted to believe that Tokage didn't know that they could hear them, but she knew better than that.

_'Midoriya, you lucky bastard.'_ Mineta shouted inside of his own mind.

* * *

"Nice job out there." Kendou told Tokage once the duo had re-entered the viewing area.

"Yeah, yeah. I'm just glad I was able to actually land some hits on Wonderboy." The green haired girl waved off with a smirk.

"An excellent match, if I do say so myself. Now onto our next bout." All Might posed once again before revealing the next pair. "Young Kendou versus Young Yaoyorozu."

_'Well, this one definitely won't be easy.'_

* * *

If she was being honest, Kendou was at a pretty big disadvantage when it came to facing someone like Yaoyorozu. Not only does she have a ridiculously powerful quirk, she's notably smarter than her as well. But if there was one thing that Kendou had going for her, it was that she was the superior fighter.

**"Begin!"**

In an instant, Yaoyorozu began producing a staff in her right hand and a shield on her left forearm. It must have been her default combat style seeing as she did the same thing during the Sports Festival, Kendou thought. Once both pieces of equipment were completely formed, the raven haired girl charged directly for her.

For a moment Kendou thought about activating her quirk, but the limited field of vision that would come with that was too risky at the moment. So instead she simply avoided the blunt side of Yaoyorozu's weapon by side-stepping to left. If it wasn't for the fact that the staff was aimed at her sternum she would've had to duck, which meant she'd have to take a metal shield to the face. The moment she found herself on her opponent's now exposed right side, Kendou activated her quirk and slammed her left hand into Yaoyorozu. Unfortunately, the raven haired girl managed to produce an iron sheet to shield her from the blow, knocking her a few meters to the left.

_'If it wasn't for the fact that her quirk was so versatile, this would be a lot easier to deal with.'_ Kendou thought.

As soon as she was back onto her feet, Yaoyorozu charged at Kendou once again. But, in the time that it took to close the distance between the two of them she created a riot shield. Kendou managed to easily dodge once again by lunging to the left. Once she let the girl pass by her, she noticed something.

_'She's been playing it safe so far. I know her quirk requires a lot of energy to make stuff but I don't know to what extent.'_ The orange haired girl pondered. Immediately Kendou decided to take the offensive and use the girls cautiousness to her advantage.

Once Yaoyorozu doubled back with her previous staff and shield combination, she was momentarily thrown off by the sight of her opponent coming straight for her. She paused her feet and readied herself for another big swing from her side. But instead, what she received was flying kick from the front that was strong enough to throw her off balance. The moment her knee hit the ground, Yaoyorozu found herself getting hit with a flurry of punches on knees. With the goal of creating some distance, she shot out a metal pillar from her stomach and used that to springboard herself off the ground. However, the second she was back onto her feet, time slowed down when she noticed Kendou's hand right next to her face. Somehow in the time in took her to stand up, the girl had lunged forward and closed the distance between them. The only thing Yaoyorozu could feel after that was the force of Kendou's hand instantly expanding and hitting her directly in the face. Knocking her onto the ground.

**"Momo Yaoyorozu is unable to continue. Itsuka Kendou wins!"**

* * *

"Well that was...anticlimactic." Kaminari echoed what everyone seemed to be thinking.

"I thought that Yao-momo had this one in the bag because of her quirk." Ashido said.

_'Yaoyorozu-san does have the stronger quirk, but she's also easily overwhelmed and can't focus that well in a pinch. Kendou-san on the other hand is more level headed when it comes to fighting and doesn't need to rely on her quirk to take down an opponent. Even so, that was still way too easy.'_ Midoriya said to himself.

* * *

"Awesome job out there Itsuka, remind me to never get into a fight with you." Tetsutetsu chuckled while giving the girl a pat on the back.

"Thanks."

"Excellent work you two. Now for our next matchup, young Mineta versus young Bondo!" All Might announced. More than a few students couldn't help but sweatdrop at this matchup seeing as both students used adhesive based quirks.

_'Oh this is going to be interesting.'_

* * *

"You're a quick learner." Kendou told Midoriya after helping him up off the ground.

"Thank you Kendou-san."

Their second sparring/teaching session had gone pretty well. Despite his lack of knowledge, Midoriya absorbed the information relatively easily and was able to put it into practice only after a few hiccups. On the flipside, Kendou was a better teacher than most would've thought. She had a way of explaining certain martial arts concepts and moves in a way that wasn't difficult to understand. It was easy to see how passionate she was about the subject.

"I think we should start cleaning this place up. We only have the room for another ten minutes." The girl motioned to the digital clock on the wall next to the door.

"Yeah." The boy agreed.

As the two began wiping down the floor matts, Midoriya's stomach decided that now was a good time to voice its opinion on the fact that he hadn't eaten anything since lunch. The growl that came from his gut was loud enough to catch Kendou's attention who was at least three meters away.

"I-I apologize." Midoriya quickly said while hiding the redness on his face.

"Don't worry about it. I agree with your stomach though, I'm starving." Kendou chuckled. She had to admit, it was pretty funny seeing the boy a bit flustered even if it was only for a brief moment.

All Midoriya could do was give an awkward laugh and hope that he would be able to live this down.

"Hey, you wanna go grab a bite to eat? I hear that there's a nice American style deli not too far from here." The oranged haired teen asked, much to the surprise of her partner. He hesitated for a brief moment and wondered if she was being serious or not. He couldn't recall the last time that he had been invited out somewhere, it was almost a foreign concept to him. After a few seconds of weighing the girl's offer he snapped back to reality to notice the expectant look on her face. Obviously she was waiting for a reply.

"Um…s-sure." He stuttered out with a weak smile.

"Awesome." She smiled back.

* * *

It wasn't long before the duo entered the aforementioned deli that was only a ten minute walk from the school. On first glance the place looked exactly like those in the old American television shows. It had a clean and cozy kind of energy to it. Fortunately it wasn't anywhere near packed so the two decided to eat their post workout meal inside instead of out.

"This place seems pretty nice. I heard from Tetsutetsu that the food here was pretty good too." Kendou said while looking around the place a bit more.

"It sure looks like it."

After ordering their food, which consisted of a chicken sandwich with chips for Midoriya and a steak sub for Kendou, the two of them sat down at a small table close to the entrance.

"So Midoriya-kun, tell me about yourself." Kendou asked in between bites. If she were being honest, she was just generally curious about the guy. Despite her initial impression of him, it was obvious that he wasn't nearly as bad as most people would think.

"T-there's really nothing to tell, Kendou-san."

"Yeah right. Says the guy who's probably the top of the class right now. Who also spends his free time cleaning up entire beaches and volunteering at local flower shops." She smirked.

Midoriya had to fight back the heat welling up in his face. He had no idea what to say to something like that.

"Honestly I'm a pretty boring person." He shakily responded. "W-what about you?"

"Well, what would you like to know?"

"A-anything I guess."

There was an awkward pause between the two that followed. Kendou knew that Midoriya wasn't the best conversationalist in the world based on previous experiences. But she was already here and the last thing she wanted was to sit and eat her food in silence. Suddenly, an idea popped into her head.

"Hey, I know. You wanna play a game?" She asked.

"A game?" The green haired teen gave her a curious look across the table.

"Yeah, it's called "twenty questions". We both take turns asking questions about each other and we have to answer each one honestly. It's pretty fun to play with new friends. It helps people get to know each other."

_'She thinks I'm her friend?'_ He thought. Truth be told he just assumed that she only thought of him as a training partner. Having someone refer to him as a friend was...bizarre.

"Oh…uh…o-okay."

"Awesome, I'll start." She set down her sandwich and began thinking. "How about something easy, where are you from?"

"Shizuoka." He responded. "W-what about you?"

"Hey, you can't just ask me the same question otherwise it'll get boring." The girl told him. "But, I'm from Chiba."

"Oh alright."

"Let's see…." Kendou began tapping a finger to her chin to come up with another question. "What's your favorite food?"

"Katsudon." He shot back automatically. "W-what's...your favorite drink?"

"Coffee, honestly I can't get enough of the stuff." She chuckled, remembering all the times that her dad got onto her for drinking too much. "Who's your favorite hero?"

"All Might."

"I kinda figured, you even use some of his moves to fight, right?"

"Y-yeah...I'm kind of his biggest fan." He bashfully scratched the back of his head.

* * *

"Achoo!"

"Sir, are you alright? Are you coming down with a cold?"

"I'm fine, it's just…never mind. Where are we at on the Overhaul case?"

* * *

"Isn't everybody?" Kendou joked. "Alright, it's your turn."

"Oh r-right. Um, how long have you practiced martial arts?"

"Ever since I was six. After my quirk appeared my mom thought it would help me learn to control it better."

"That's cool."

"Speaking of quirks, yours is awesome. It's pretty versatile too."

"T-thanks. But your quirk is pretty amazing too." He deflected, hoping to get away from the topic of his quirk as quickly as possible.

"Yeah, it's pretty straightforward but I'm not complaining. Especially since I plan being a battle hero."

"Yeah, you're right." Midoriya acquiesced, his next question was a bit out of the blue. "Hey Kendou-san, why do you want to be a hero?"

The question admittedly caught her off guard for a second. It was a simple thing to ask, with a pretty simple answer. But she had to think on exactly how she was going to put it into words. "I guess the short answer would be that I've always looked up to heroes and wanted to be like them. This is going to sound kind of cheesy, but I've always wanted to inspire people and do some good. If that makes sense?"

"That doesn't sound cheesy at all. I think that's an awesome reason." Midoriya shot back with a bit more enthusiasm than she was used to seeing from him. Although he didn't say it out loud, he appreciated hearing that the girl wanted to be a hero for a good reason. Unlike certain people.

"How about you? Why do you want to be a hero?"

"O-oh uh, I-I guess it's because I've just always wanted to help people."

Despite it being a simple answer, Kendou could practically feel the sincerity in his words. It was nice knowing that someone like him just wanted to do some good.

Before either one of them could get out another question, the door to the deli opened up and revealed two boys about their age walking inside. One had long brown hair with droopy eyes, the other also looked pretty normal with short black hair and black eyes. They looked around for a second before one of them spotted a head of messy green hair a few feet away.

"Hey is that Deku?!" The droopy eyed one called out.

"Is it? Hey yeah it totally is."

The two boys immediately bounded their way towards the duo. Kendou wouldn't have thought much of it if wasn't for two things. The first, was the boy's use of the name "Deku". So far she only heard Bakugou call him that, so they probably knew the guy. Second, was how she noticed Midoriya visibly tense up once he heard that word being called out.

"Do you know them, Midoriya-kun?" She asked. But before she could get a response the two in question were already at their table.

"Yo Deku, how's it going man?"

"How long has it been, like two years? Look at you Mr. Bigshot U.A. superstar."

"Seriously, we were pretty surprised to see you of all people had gotten into U.A.. We all knew Kacchan was a shoe in, but when we saw you on T.V. it was pretty crazy."

Now that was interesting to hear. Sure, U.A. was a pretty prestigious school, but someone like Midoriya getting in was almost a guarantee based on what she's seen him do. And who was this "Kacchan" person?

"So…how do you guys know Midoriya-kun?" She looked to her classmate. His hands were now tensed into fist at the table and his earlier light hearted expression was replaced by somewhat of a grimace.

"We all used to be classmates, up until he transferred schools out of the blue a couple of years ago."

"Oh I see, so were you guys friends or something?" She asked, even though she had a feeling that she knew the answer already.

"No, we weren't." The sharpness of Midoriya's tone didn't go unnoticed by the others. Nor was the intense glare that he gave them immediately after. "Can you please leave us alone? You interrupted our conversation."

"Hey man, sorry." The droopy eyed boy threw up his hands a bit defensively."We just thought we'd drop in and say hello. Look, I know we were pretty mean to you back then bu-"

"Can you just go already?"

"Fine, whatever Deku. Nice seeing you, I guess…." The black haired one said before the two walked off. Midoriya's eyes lingering on the them as they approached the front register.

"So what was all that about?" The orange haired girl asked. This was the first time she had seen him anywhere near upset. Obviously there was something between the three of them.

"It was nothing." He waved off, his face returning to his normal scowl.

"Okay." She relented, not wanting to push the topic. Even though she was curious, it wasn't any of her business.

"I-it's getting late. I think we should call it a night." He told her after letting out a quick sigh.

"Yeah, you're right."

The two of them quickly put their trash away and made their way over to the train station. The walk was a bit quieter than Kendou was expecting, though. Midoriya's slightly more upbeat disposition had pretty much vanished and he was back to how he usually acted. If she didn't know any better, she would say that he looked a bit stressed.

Once they arrived at Tatooine station, it was time for the two training partners to part ways. Especially since they had to take different trains to get home.

"I guess I'll see you tomorrow at school Midoriya-kun."

"U-uh yes. Have a good night Kendou-san." The green haired teen politely bowed just before he left to go over to his platform. Dragging his feet a bit.

The ride back was smooth and comfortable as it always was for Kenodu. And she felt pretty good about finally being able to actually get back into a regular training schedule for once. Having Midoriya to spar with was definitely going to get her back into fighting form sooner rather than later. For a minute her mind wandered to a certain set of green hair and a small smile crept its way onto her lips. After spending the entire afternoon with him, she concluded that Midoriya wasn't anywhere near as bad as people made him out to be. Sure he was quiet and kind of antisocial, but he was a pretty cool guy.

_'Yeah, I could definitely be his friend.'_

* * *

**Author's Notes: Oh boy, another long one. I try to limit myself to 3,000 words a chapter but lately I've been failing at that miserably. **

**1\. So I guess you can say that this was their first "not-date" of the story. I know, I know, it took us fourteen chapters just to get this far. I'm still trying to figure out the exact relationship dynamic I want these two to have. I like the idea of Kendou being the one to initiate most of everything with Midoriya just politely going along with it. I think it's a good balance between her confident/outgoing personality and his loner/introverted one. I may change some things in the chapter depending on the reviews. So let me know how you guys feel about it. **

**2\. I wanted to show that Midoriya is actively making an effort to interact with people more. But he still sucks at talking and conversations (just like in cannon). Even if he doesn't realize that everyone (Jiro and the Kendou-squad) is genuinely being nice to him for good reasons. We're going to see a bit more of this as the story goes on. Also, more Deku-squad next chapter. **

**3\. Is there any one character from 1-A or 1-B that you guys want to get a highlight moment? I'm having a hard time writing something for the training camp and I can't decide on who I should include. Let me know what character you guys want to see. **

**4\. I feel like Midoriya has gone too long without a good ass-kicking lately. Should I introduce the 'Big Three' before or after the training camp? I have their whole part of the story planned out already, I just can't decide when to properly introduce them. I'll let you guys decide. **

**As always, thanks for reading and don't be afraid to drop a review. **


	15. Semester Exams: Part 1

"Hey Wonderboy, Jiro. Over here! We got some open spots." Tokage abruptly called out, catching the attention of every nearby table.

The two 1-A students were walking together through the cafeteria in hopes of finding a place to sit. Surprisingly, Jiro had decided to eat alongside Midoriya today for whatever reason. Scanning over the table, they did in fact see two open seats and gave each other a quick look before making their way over.

"Hello." The quirk inheritor greeted as he took the seat on Kendou's right.

"Thanks for letting us sit with you guys, this place is packed today." The _'earphone jack'_ user said.

"Well you guys let us sit with you the last time so it only seems fair." Tokage grinned.

For the first few minutes, the table was relatively quiet. Everyone was much more focused on eating rather than talking. Their morning heroics class apparently had drained them more than they had thought. But that changed once Kendou took a break from stuffing her face.

"So are you guys ready for the exams?" The orange haired girl asked the group. _(Class 1-B, Midterm: 4/20)_

"I hear they're pretty intense." Tetsutetsu spoke up, an air of trepidation in his voice. _(Class 1-B, Midterm: 15/20)_

"Honestly I'm kind of worried." Jiro admitted. "Midoriya's been helping me with math and English, but I'm not feeling too great about it." _(Class 1-A, Midterm: 7/20)_

"Everything we've learned over this semester will be covered. It's truly a daunting task." Shiozaki said. _(Class 1-B, Midterm: 8/20)_

"Eh, I'm not too worried about it. If it's all the stuff that we covered this semester then it should be a cake walk." Tokage shrugged. _(Class 1-B, Midterm: 1/20)_

"I still don't understand how you can be so chill about this, or how you got the top spot in class. Y'know, you're surprisingly smart for someone so laid back."

"Did you already forget that Setsuna's recommendation was for academics."

"Yeah, I'm not just a gorgeous face, Metalhead." Tokage shot him a toothy smirk with a flip of her hair. "Speaking of which, I've been meaning to ask...what were your recommendations for, Wonderboy?"

Everyone's eyes immediately turned to Midoriya.

"Huh?" _(Class 1-A, Midterm: 2/20)_

"C'mon, it's not much of a secret now. We all know that you got a recommendation from the principal and some old retired hero."

"Oh...u-uh...w-well…"

"I'm actually curious about that as well, Midoriya-san. You also earned the top spot on the entrance exam. Why did you participate if you were already admitted into the school?" Shiozaki echoed what the others seemed to be thinking.

"I-I umm...ugh!" Before he could fumble his way through an answer, Midoriya felt something hit him in the back of the head.

Everyone at the table looked up to see none other than Monama standing over them with his tray in hand. His usual creepy smile on full display.

"You guys, I'm disappointed. Eating with the enemy, have you no shame?" The copy quirk user directed his gaze towards his classmates.

"Monama, what the hell is wrong with you?"

"Sorry, my elbow just couldn't resist hitting that gigantic head of his. Ack!" As if on cue, Kendou stood up from her seat and delivered a forceful chop to the back of the boy's neck, knocking him down to the ground. Luckily she was able to catch his tray before his food could spill everywhere.

"The only person with a big head around here is you!" She chastised his now unconscious body.

A couple of seconds later, Kosei Tsuburaba appeared and immediately began apologizing for his friend's actions.

"Sorry Kendou, he saw all of you guys sitting together and couldn't help himself."

"Have you ever tried putting a leash on him?" Tokage asked him.

All the _'solid air'_ user could do was give a quick laugh and an apologetic wave before dragging the blonde's body back to his table.

"Are you alright Midoriya-san?" Shiozaki asked the boy who was still rubbing his head.

"Yeah." He waved off.

"Sorry about that Midoriya-kun. He's too gung-ho about this whole "class rivalry" thing."

_'Midoriya-kun?'_ Jiro, Tetsutetsu and Shiozaki's thoughts echoed simultaneously.

_'Oh I'm definitely about to have some fun with this.'_ Tokage couldn't help but try and hide her grin at this new honorific her friend was using.

"It's fine."

"If you say so." She relented. " Anyways, as long as we're on the topic of exams I did hear that they're just going to have us fight robots again."

"And who did you hear that from?"

"Tamaki, he's one of my neighbors and he's a third year. He also said that the teachers are going to be judging us on battle strategy instead of how many we destroy. I know, it kinda sounds like cheating to tell you guys that. But hey... "

_'That's a little more anticlimactic than I was expecting. But, I'm sure gathering information ahead of time is also part of the test. I wish I could find an upperclassmen to confirm this. Why didn't I think of this before? I definitely can't ask Toshinori-san-'_ Midoriya internalized before another voice brought him back to reality.

"Man, that's such a relief." Tetsutetsu let out an exaggerated sigh/cheer. "If it's just robots then it'll be a piece of cake."

"Yeah but the written tests are still going to be a pain." Jiro groaned, unintentionally destroying the rest of the steel quirk user's confidence.

Suddenly a lightbulb went off over Tokage's head. A deviously brilliant idea formed in her mind that would enable her to kill two (or three) birds with one stone.

"Oh I know, we should all study together before the exams."

"What?" Everyone looked to her.

"Think about it, between the six of us we could cover everything pretty easily. And if Wonderboy's there then it's just more brainpower to piggyback off of. Are you guys up for it?"

"A study group would be very beneficial to anyone struggling. I myself am starting to fall behind on a few subjects and could use some assistance." Shiozaki chimed in.

"Yeah sure, I'm sucking in pretty much everything right now anyway. Because of the Sports Festival and the internships I haven't been hitting the books as hard as I should. I could use the help."

"It definitely wouldn't hurt." Kendou agreed. Having both Midoriya and Tokage there would mean that they had two of the smartest kids in the hero course to sponge off of.

"So what do you say?" Tokage looked to Midoriya and Jiro. "I know we're not classmates and all that, but you guys are more than welcome."

_'And it gives me a chance to fuck with Itsuka and Wonderboy a bit.'_ She kept that part to herself.

"Uh sure, if it's okay with you guys." Jiro said while absentmindedly glancing over to Midoriya.

"What about you, Midoriya-kun?" Kendou looked beside her.

He stayed silent for a second and thought about it. There wasn't any particular subject that he was struggling in so he didn't really need the help. But if the other students around him were having trouble in class, how could he say no to giving his assistance? Plus if Jiro was there then it would mean that he wouldn't be the only student in his class present.

"Sure, if you guys need help then I'm fine with it." Was his response.

"It's settled then! Let me get your guy's numbers so I can add you in our group chat. We can work out a time and place later."

* * *

Once the lunch bell rang, the students began shuffling out of the cafeteria to head back to their classrooms. Surprisingly, Midoriya and Jiro were walking side by side with each other. They had a free period next and the latter was hoping to get some last minute studying in before their upcoming math quiz later on in the day.

"Excuse me Midoriya, Jiro." A deep voice called them from behind.

The two of them looked back to see none other than their raven headed classmate walking towards them.

"What's up Tokoyami?" Jiro asked, not used to conversing with the shadow quirk user.

"I apologize, but earlier I couldn't help but overhear that you intend to form a study group some other students."

"Yeah…."

"Would it be too brash that I ask to join you? I am having difficulties in certain subjects and I believe studying with you would prove to be most beneficial."

"It's not really up to us. But we can ask the others if that's okay." The purple haired girl responded.

"I see, well thank you for your consideration." Was all Tokoyami said before he continued making his way back to class. The two of them barely made it a few steps themselves before something else caught their attention.

"Izuku Midoriya! I was told that I'd find you here." A female voice shouted from a distance. The two hero course students looked to their left to see a girl with pink hair rapidly approaching. In the blink of an eye, the dreadhead was mere centimeters away from him. Obviously not caring about personal space in the slightest.

"Mei Hatsume, support course first year. Nice to meet ya!" She introduced herself with a wide grin.

"Um...h-hello?" He awkwardly responded. Of course he remembered the girl from her antics at the Sports Festival.

"Majima-sensei said that I'm going to be working on your costume for now on." Hatsume said just before grabbing onto Midoriya's arm and pulling him in the opposite direction. "Come now, there's no time to waste. The two of us are going to be making a lot babies together!" She shouted, catching the attention of everyone still on the hall.

_'What did she just say?'_ Despite having enhanced hearing, Jiro was certain that she misheard the girl speak.

"W-What?!" Was the only thing that the quirk inheritor was able to say before the two of them disappeared around the corner.

It took a second for Jiro to process what had just happened before it dawned on her that her tutor was now gone. Needless to say, she didn't do too well on their quiz.

* * *

For some reason, Kenodu was really looking forward to her afternoon training session with Midoriya today. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but something about getting the chance to spar with the verdant teen was getting her pump up. But whatever it was, she managed to calm her nerves down enough to not come off as any more weird than what she was usually known for.

The moment the duo turned onto the next hall on the way to the training room that she had reserved, she caught a familiar silhouette out of the corner of her eye.

"Tamaki!" Kendou called out. Causing the indigo haired teen to jump momentarily before the recognition of her voice registered in his brain.

"O-oh, hi Itsuka." Amajiki turned around and greeted her, his voice barely audible.

"How's it going? I didn't expect to see you here so late."

"We reserved Gym Gamma for some afternoon training."

"We?"

"Ooh Amajiki-kun, who are you talking to?" A soft female voice inquired before a sea of sky blue hair appeared in everyone's vision. Kendou immediately recognized those features belonging to Nejire Hadou, the class rep of 3-A. "Oh hey, you're Kendou, class 1-B's rep! How do you know Amajiki-kun? Oh wait, aren't you guys neighbors? What a coincidence running into you here!"

_'Does she have on 'off' switch?'_ Kendou deadpanned.

"You have a friend here too. Hey, you're Midoriya right? The Wonderboy extraordinaire who won the first year's Sport Festival."

_'Did she just call me "Wonderboy"? She has to know Tokage-san.'_ Midoriya internally groaned.

"Hey, Mirio-kun! The green haired guy from the Sports Festival is over here." The bluenette shouted over her shoulder with stars in her eyes.

_'Wait, Mirio...Mirio Togata?'_

"Really?" Another male voice responded, albeit a lot more cheery than Amajiki. Just then, out from around the corner he appeared. He was tall, muscular, with circular dark blue eyes and blonde hair. Sporting a smile that was comforting yet oddly intimidation at the same time. "What's up first years, it's nice to meet you. I'm Mirio Togata, but you guys can just call me Mirio." He extended out his right hand, revealing a few small scars littered across his exposed forearm.

_'So this is the guy that Nighteye told Toshinori-san about.'_ Midoriya thought as he gave him a quick glance up and down.

Although he was well aware of who Togata was, meeting him face to face for the first time was definitely a weird experience for him. Only a few months after finally receiving 'One for All' did Yagi finally tell him about this guy. Apparently Nighteye had been grooming him to be All Might's successor for some time. He had no idea what his quirk did, or how skilled he was. But the fact that the guy standing before him could've very well received 'One for All' instead of him meant that he was a big deal.

"Yeah, you too." Kednou was the first to shake the boy's hand.

"Y-yeah." Midoriya followed suit.

"Hey Midoriya-kun, what's your quirk called? How does it work? What were parents' quirks? Oh I bet your mom has some wind or elemental quirk and your dad has a strength quirk, huh? Am I right? C'mon I gotta know." The bluenette started pelting him with questions.

_'Is this what my mumbling sounds like to other people?'_

"Hadou please, you're gonna scare them away."

"Tamaki's right, plus we need to head over to the gym and get started." Togata motioned a hand in the direction of Gym Gamma. "It was awesome running into you two though. I saw you guys on T.V. and you both seem really strong. If you ever want to join us for training sometime you'd be more than welcome to. I think it'd be a ton of fun."

"You guys can bring Setsuna-chan too. She's in your class, right? Her quirk is like totally wild." Hadou told the both of them while waving her hands in a fashion that they assumed was emulate Tokage's quirk.

"Don't let him trick you, he doesn't know how to hold back." Amajiki interjected.

"Thanks for the offer Togata-san. We might take you up on that, Tamaki says you're really strong so I think it'd be cool." Kendou shot the boy a smile.

"I look forward to it. Anyways, see you guys around."

"See you later Itsuka."

"Have fun!"

With that, the three third year students disappeared down the hall and out the door. Leaving Midoriya and Kendou alone again.

"They seem...interesting." Was all Midoriya could say after the reality of their encounter finally hit him.

"Yeah, you'd never guess that they were the top students at the school. But whatever, we should hurry and get to training room."

"Y-yeah."

* * *

"So, Midoriya-kun...do you mind if I ask you something." Kendou asked after dropping down onto the floor mat and leaning back on her hands. Sweat still migrating down he face.

"S-sure."

"Why did you take the entrance exam if you got recommended in? You never did tell us during lunch."

Midoriya visibly fidgeted in place and twisted his hands together as he tried to come up with a good answer. After all, he couldn't just come out and say the real reason or else it would possibly compromise Yagi.

Luckily Kendou noticed this shift in behavior and quickly tried to retract her question. "Hey you don't have to answer if you don't want to. I was just curious."

"N-no, it's fine. It's just that...it's kind of a dumb reason." He awkwardly scratched the back of his head.

"I'm sure it can't be that bad."

"Well, it's because I wanted to prove that I belong here."

"I don't get it."

"Well...I just wanted to make sure that people didn't judge me because of it." Not a complete lie. But definitely not the whole truth either.

"I think I get what your saying. Setsuna mentioned something about that, how people think recommended students didn't actually earn their spots."

"Yeah."

"Well that's pretty dumb if you ask me. From what I heard those exams were harder than the regular one."

"They definitely were."

"Plus you got one from the principal. I'm pretty sure he doesn't exactly hand those out like candy."

"Yeah."

"But I'm kinda glad that you ended up taking the regular exam."

"Huh?" He gave her a confused look.

"Oh uh...w-what I mean is, if it wasn't for you, me and that Uraraka girl would've been flattened by that zero-pointer." For a second Kendou felt her cheeks heat up, which was bizarre. Maybe she wasn't completely cooled down after their sparring session?

"I'm sure you had it handled."

"Not even close, I had absolutely no plan on how I was going to get out of that. One minute I was running away, the next my feet ended up moving on their own and I found myself trying to pick up a giant slab of concrete."

_'If only Toshinori-san could hear her say that.'_

"But hey, if you ask me if anyone earned their spot here it's definitely you. Plus you've already proven that you're more than capable."

"I don't know about all that."

"Hey, I'm just speaking the truth." She shrugged.

"I appreciate the kind words, Kendou-san. I-I think you're pretty c-cool too." He absentmindedly returned her a compliment.

"Huh?"

"W-what I mean is uh...e-everyone in your class seems like they look up to you. They say that you're a natural born leader."

"Yeah, Honenuki-kun also calls me the class "big sister". I still don't know how I feel about that."

"It's kind of fitting."

"Whatever you say, _Wonderboy_." She said, poking fun at Tokage's nickname for him.

An awkward laugh broke out amongst the two of them. It lasted for a good few seconds before Kendou noticed the time on the digital clock next to the door.

"We should get going." She pointed a thumb over to the wall.

"Y-yeah."

When the two of them stood up, Kendou noticed a good amount of her hair was out of place. It more than likely came undone during their sparring and she just now realized it. Without much thought she undid her signature side-ponytail and momentarily let her long orange hair drop down just past her shoulders. Giving her head a few twists to shake the sweat out of it.

_'Y'know, Kendou-san looks really pret- Whoa, calm down Izuku! You shouldn't be thinking like that.'_ Midoriya quickly kicked himself. The heat suddenly starting to rise up in his face after seeing his sparring partner/possible friend's orange locks momentarily wave around in the air.

"Alright, let's hit the road." Kendou said to him after returning her hair back to its normal style.

"R-right!"

* * *

_~Ultimate Study Group Created~_

_~Itsuka Kendou, Ibara Shiozaki, Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu, Kyoka Jiro and Izuku Midoriya have joined the group~_

T-Rex: What's up guys?!

Dumbbell: Did you seriously name this chat "Ultimate Study Group"?

T-Rex: Problem?

Dumbbell: Yes

Fist: Not even five texts in to the conversation and you guys are already arguing.

T-Rex: Not my fault. Anyways...is everybody here?

Cross: Yes

Microphone: Yup

All Might: Yes

T-Rex: Sweet. Now for our order of business, we need to find a place for all of us to study.

Microphone: Actually…

Microphone: Do you mind if we invite another person? One of our classmates asked if he can study with us.

Dumbbell: It's not Bakugou is it? I hate that guy.

T-Rex: Dear god no!

Cross: Language

Microphone: No it's Tokoyami.

Dumbbell: Who?

Fist: The guy with the crow head and the shadow spirit quirk, right?

Microphone: Yeah

T-Rex: Fine with me.

Dumbbell: As long as he's cool I'm okay with it.

Fist: Sure

Cross: I welcome anyone who seeks assistance.

Microphone: Cool.

_~Fumikage Tokoyami has joined the group~_

Raven: I am most gracious for you allowing me to join your study group.

Fist: No problem.

T-Rex: Now that everyone's here. Back to business, where are we going to study and when?

Dumbbell: I'm free whenever but the weekend is probably our best bet.

Fist: Agreed

Cross: Yes

T-Rex: How about Saturday at around 12:00?

Fist: Sure

Microphone: Cool

Dumbbell: K

Cross: Sure

Raven: Acceptable

All Might: Ok

T-Rex: Anyone know of a place? We don't really have a lot of space in our apartment.

All Might: My apartment wouldn't be good either.

Microphone: Me and Midoriya usually study at the library near school.

Fist: That won't work, Tetsutetsu is too loud for that. We'd get kicked out.

Dumbbell: (；一_一)

Cross: I would volunteer, but I'm having family over this weekend. It would simply be too crowded.

Fist: We can do this at my place, just let me ask my parents first.

Fist: My dad said it's cool.

Dumbbell: Hell yeah!

Cross: Language

T-Rex: Alright, Saturday 12:00 at Kendou's house.

Microphone: Where do live anyway?

Fist: Chiba. What about you guys?

Microphone: Shizuoka

Raven: Shizuoka

Dumbbell: Saitama

Cross: Kanagawa

T-Rex: Saitama

All Might: Shizuoka

Fist: Wow, I feel like the odd one out. I'll send all of you my address in a sec.

T-Rex: You are. :-)

T-Rex: But now everyone knows the plan. Any objections?

Microphone: Nah

Raven: No

Dumbbell: Negative

Cross: No

All Might: No

Fist: Bring snacks! I feel like we're going to be going at this for a while.

Dumbbell: I got chips!

T-Rex: I got drinks!

Microphone: I can get us a pizza.

Cross: I shall provide a lovely salad.

Raven: I will supply some brownies if that is to everyone's liking.

Fist: This feels more like a party than a study group.

Dumbbell: Right!

All Might: I'll bring some fruit and bagels.

T-Rex: I pegged you for a health nut, Wonderboy.

Microphone: It's pretty much all he eats. There's like no junk food in his apartment.

Fist: You've been over to his place?

Microphone: Yeah

T-Rex: Oh really?

T-Rex: You guys had a party of your own over there? ;D

Cross: Setsuna!

T-Rex: What?

Fist: I'm sorry you guys, but she's always like this.

Microphone: Yeah...I can tell. But no, we just studied...that's it.

T-Rex: Whatever you say. ;-)

Fist: On that note, I'm going to bed.

All Might: Same

Microphone: Yeah goodnight.

Raven: I shall be retiring as well.

Dumbbell: Yeah, I'm hitting the hay too.

Cross: Agreed, I hope all of you have a splendid a slumber.

T-Rex: You people are no fun. Whatever, catch y'all tomorrow.

* * *

**Author's Notes: So yeah, I kinda just met in the middle and briefly introduced the Big Three to everyone. We can save the fight for another time. I've been setting up parts of Yakuza raid since chapter 10, obviously it's going to be way different than in cannon but that's a while from now. I honestly just like writing their characters out too.**

**1\. I know the romance in this story is moving kind of slow, but from here on out it's going to be a pretty steady incline. I'm juggling a lot of things in this fic so I'm trying to make sure that everything is balanced out. The Sports Festival part of this story kind of shifted everything over and I wanted to make sure that they became friends first.**

**2\. Alright, more Deku-Squad! I personally like the dynamic that I have planned out for the group and it will be a joy to write out some moments that I have planned. I hope you guys enjoy them.**

**3\. The exams will be done in the next two chapters. Mainly because I don't see a point in dragging them out. I'll only be writing out the All Might vs Midoriya, Bakugou and Todoroki fight, but will let the results of everything be known. There will only be a few changes to the cannon outcomes though.**

**As always, thanks for reading and feel free to drop a review.**


	16. Semester Exams: Part 2

"Are you sure you don't need any more money?" Inko asked her son, who was actually going over to a friend's house for the first time in essentially forever.

"Yes, mom. I'm sure." He told her the seventh time this morning.

"Oh, I should've made more food." She lamented.

"It's fine."

"How long are you going to be gone? You didn't plan on sleeping over there did you?"

"No! W-we're just studying."

"Alright, if you say so." In true Midoriya fashion, the green haired woman suddenly began to start crying. Almost flooding the entire kitchen. "I'm really glad that you're making friends sweetie."

"I think calling my friends is a bit too much."

"I'm not so sure about that, Izuku."

* * *

The late morning train ride over to Chiba was pretty smooth for Midoriya. Since it was the weekend, there were far less crowds this time of day.

Letting out a short yawn, Midoriya continued strolling down the street into the neighborhood that he was not used to. It was a pretty standard suburban community with decent sized houses that all essentially looked the same. Nothing you wouldn't see anywhere else in Japan. Thankfully Kendou gave everyone her address before hand, so finding her house was pretty easy.

When he first approached the front door, he was clueless on what to do next. In the time it took him to walk up the four stone steps, it finally dawned on him that he was going into someone else's house. A girl's house, at that. He tried to bring his miniature meltdown to a minimum before giving four not-too-forceful knocks on the door. The last thing he needed was Kendou or any of the others thinking he was weirder than what he already was.

He waited for about fifteen seconds before the sound of footsteps could be heard from the other side of the door. Just then, it opened up to reveal Kendou who was dressed in a formfitting teal tank-top and black gym shorts. She had her hair in her signature side ponytail but that certainly didn't help the fact that Midoriya was trying not to blush at the sight of a girl.

"Midoriya-kun, you're…right on time. Wow, talk about punctual." Kendou gave a chuckle after looking at her phone.

"I apologize. If you want, I can come by late-"

"It's fine dude, come on in. You're the first one here." She waved off, motioning her arm in a way that signaled him to come inside.

"Thank you, Kendou-san." He bowed.

After taking off his shoes and setting his backpack down on the floor, he pulled out the snacks that his mother had made for their study session. As expected, she ended up going overboard and wound up loading more than a reasonable amount of delicately cut fruits and cinnamon bagels into the plastic containers.

"Where should I put this?" Midoriya asked.

"In the kitchen, its over on the left." Kendou pointed in that direction.

On the way over to the kitchen, Midoriya was able to take in the looks of the house. It was a rather nicely decorated home, nothing too out of the ordinary. But the main thing that stood out to him was the trophy case in the living room filled with dozens of martial arts awards with Kendou's name on them. It was definitely an impressive sight to behold. He knew she was very skilled, their sparring sessions could attest to that. But from the looks of it she was actually amazing.

He stopped gawking long enough to set the containers down onto the counter and made his way to the living room where Kendou was already sitting while flipping through the television. The closer he got to her, the more he could feel his muscles tense up. It took everything in his power to keep the blood from rushing to his face. The last time he had been over to someone else's house was when he was four. He had no idea what proper etiquette for situations like this were. What if he accidentally offended her somehow? Or did something embarrassing? Maybe he should've just declined the offer and stayed home instead.

"Thanks for coming today. I know you're not much of a social person, but I appreciate you helping us out." Kendou looked to him with a smile.

"Oh uh y-yeah, don't m-mention it." He shakily replied.

"So there's really no point in getting started without the others. You wanna just chill out in the meantime?" She pointed over to the open seat on black leather sofa she was currently sitting on.

"S-sure."

The two sat in award silence silence for a few minutes before Midoriya decided to try and break the ice.

"So…your home is really nice." He told her, looking around the living room once again.

"Thanks, we just moved here last year. It's closer to my parent's shop."

"Shop?"

"My parents run an auto shop. They also make custom motorcycles."

"That's really cool."

"Yeah." She said with a quick nod. "So how's your day been going so far?"

"P-pretty good. The only thing I did was my morning training before I got here."

"What kind?" She asked, genuinely curious as to what kind of training he could be doing. This was the same guy who cleaned up an entire beach by himself so she expected it to be pretty crazy.

"Running and calisthenics. I don't really do too much on the weekends."

"I bet you weight lift too, huh." She joked.

"Y-yeah."

"Makes sense, you do have a strength quirk after all."

"Yeah…" Midoriya awkwardly agreed. "H-how has your day been so far?"

"I'll tell you when it starts. I've only been awake for like two hours."

"Oh."

"Yeah, I'm not much of a morning person." Kendou said while stretching out her entire body over the couch.

* * *

After about twenty minutes of small talk (Kendou doing most of the talking), Tetsutetsu and Tokage were the next to show up at the Kendou residence.

"What's up? Y'know, I thought we'd be the first one's here." Tokage said with a sharp look over to the green haired boy.

"Yeah, how long as Midoriya here?" Tetsutetsu asked.

"He got here right at twelve. At least someone here knows the value of punctuality."

"It wasn't our fault. Our train got delayed because some douche with an electricity quirk decided to fry the entire rail."

"Aw man, that sounds like a pain."

"It was. Anyways, where can I drop these off?" Tetsutetsu held up several bags of chips.

"In the kitchen."

"Cool"

"Take these too will ya?" Tokage said as she handed the steel quirk user the two bottles of juice that she brought with her. Tetsutetsu gave an indifferent "sure" and went along his way.

In that moment, Tokage grabbed onto Kendou's arm and pulled her all the way next to the staircase. Giving a quick look around the corner to make sure that no one was in earshot.

"So…you and Wonderboy got to spend some alone time together huh? Anything _exciting_ happen? C'mon spill." She asked Kendou with a devious grin.

"Definitely not." The ginger teen waved off.

"So you were here, in your house, alone with a hot guy and you didn't make a move on him? I'm so disappointed in you."

"Can you stop, please?"

"I'm just messing with you. But come on, you already said that you guys had a pretty nice date the other day."

"And I already told you that it wasn't a date."

"Spending the entire afternoon training together and going out to dinner sure sounds like a date to me."

"Whatever." Kendou scoffed before turning around and heading back to the living room to rejoin Midoriya. Despite her best attempt, the redness that snuck onto her cheeks had not gone unnoticed by Tokage.

_'Oh man, this is going to be too easy.'_

* * *

After another fifteen minutes, Jiro, Shiozaki and Tokoyami all managed to show up. Now, with everyone present and accounted for the group grabbed their notebooks and study materials and circled around each other in the living room. Tokage taking point in getting everything started.

"Alright, now that everyone's here. What are we going to get started on first?" The green haired girl looked around her classmates.

"Well what's everyone's worst subject?" Midoriya asked.

"Math." Jiro bashully admitted.

"English." Kendou and Shiozaki both stated.

"World history." Tokoyami said.

"Everything…." Tetsutetsu whined, a manly tear in his eye.

"What about you guys?"

"I'm not really having trouble in any subject. I have _'A's'_ in everything." Tokage smirked with her hands tucked behind her head.

"S-same." Midoriya echoed.

Tetsutetsu and Jiro shot them a couple of jealous looks that lasted for a full ten seconds. Midoriya could only responded with an awkward chuckle while Tokage just flat out started cackling in front of them.

"How about we start simple and work our way up? First we'll start with math, then world history. Then we'll finish off with English." Kendou proposed.

Jiro was the first to raise her hand. "Can we go over hero law while we're at it? I'm still shaky on a few regulations."

"I'm fine with that."

"Agreed." Everyone else spoke up.

With that, the group quickly got started. Three hours (and one shredded notebook thanks to Tetsutetsu) later, the students found themselves hard at work but making good progress on their studies. Midoriya and Tokage took the time to breakdown everything in a way that was easily digestible and everyone else filled in the gaps whenever possible. Everything was going smoothly until they finally worked their way to English.

"Ugh, I just don't get it! Why is there even a _'K'_ in the word if it's silent? That doesn't make any sense!" Tetsutetsu whined once again.

"Understanding it is simple enough but the spelling is truly where I start to get lost." Shiozaki admitted.

"It's just one of those things you just have to get used to, y'know." Kendou said to her friends to lift their spirits.

Truth be told she wasn't doing much better in the spelling department either. Especially when it came to having to know whether to use a _'j'_ or a _'g'_, or a _'k'_ instead of a _'c'_. Surprisingly, Jiro and Tokoyami weren't really having that much difficulty with the subject. Jiro chalked it up to listening to so much American rock and roll, while Tokoyami attributed his proficiency to his reading of famous American poets.

"How are you two so good at this?" Tetsutetsu pointed an accusatory finger to the other two green haired students,

"My sister watches a lot of old American movies. I kinda picked it up watching them with her." Tokage shrugged.

"I-it's a valuable skill to learn." was all Midoriya responded with. In reality, he began studying it after learning that All Might spent some time in the U.S. when he was still a student at U.A..

"Do you mind if we take a respite from our studies? I'll admit I need a moment to decompress." Tokayami requested.

"Yeah I think that's a good idea. I could use a break too." Kendou agreed.

Everyone nodded in agreeance before collectively closing their textbooks and laptops. Tetsutetsu was the first to run to the kitchen and start bringing the food that everyone brought over to the living room. A few minutes after the students began digging in and talking about whatever came to mind, the sound of the front door opening drew their attention.

In walked Mikoto Kendou. A black haired woman with eyes that matched her daughter's. She stood a solid 183 centers tall with muscles that would put most professional athletes to shame. The woman took a few steps into the hallway before turning her head to see her daughter and five other kids around her age with notebooks and papers scattered across the living room floor.

"Oh yeah, I forgot you were having some friends over. How's the studying thing going?" The elder Kendou asked while stretching out her arms.

"We're doing good, mom."

"That's nice. Well, I'll let you kids get back to it." Was all the said before disappearing upstairs.

The students were quiet for a brief moment before Tokage spoke up.

"Geez, your mom is jacked!" She tried not to shout that part out just in case her mother was listening.

"It's because of her quirk. She calls it _'bulk up'_, it pretty much lets her increase her muscle mass for a few minutes." Kendou explained.

_'Well that explains one half of her power, I wonder what her father's quirk is.'_

"That's pretty cool. Speaking of being jacked…" A wide grin grew on Tokage's face when she saw a golden opportunity to have a little bit of fun. "What's your workout routine, Wonderboy? When we were going at it during our match I could tell you're pretty buff under the under your costume."

Midoriya's face adopted a slight tinge of pink at her comment. Along with a few unapproving glances from Kendou and Shiozaki.

"What? I'm just telling the truth. I mean look!"

Suddenly, Tokage stood up from her spot on the floor and quickly made her way over to the couch that Midoriya and Kendou were both sharing. Before either of them knew what was going on, the green haired girl grabbed her best friend's hand and placed it right over Midoriya's left bicep, proceeding to guide it up and down.

While Midoriya's mind short circuited at the act of having Kendou's hand trace over his arm, the orange haired girl's brain was in a completely different place. For a brief couple of seconds, Kendou couldn't help but be amazed at how robust his arms felt. Evidently her classmates was right, he was deceptively well built. He always wore baggy clothes even when it came to his hero costume. On top of that she never really noticed during their sparring matches together.

_'She's right, he is pretty soli- Wait, what the hell am I thinking right now?!'_ Kendou thought before immediately pulling her hands away from his body.

"See, he's like a damn brick house!"

"Setsuna, that kind of behavior is extremely inappropriate!" Shiozaki chastised her, only receiving a toothy smirk and a devious laugh in response.

"S-sorry about that, Midoriya-kun." Kendou apologized, making sure to not look at him to hide the blush that suddenly erupted onto her face.

"I-it's f-fine." Midoriya awkwardly waved off, not doing much better in hiding the full on redness on his face.

"Let's just get back to studying please. I think that was enough of a break." The orange haired girl almost pleaded. Hoping to quickly move past what just happened.

"Agreed." Said the others.

With that, the crew of students spent the rest of the afternoon studying various subjects. Despite the awkwardness of what just happened, everything went on pretty normally from that point on.

* * *

"Thanks for helping me clean up, Midoriya-kun." Kendou said to Midoriya while drying off the last of the dishes. It was almost sunset and everyone else had gone home already. Midoriya offered to help stay and clean up. Much to her delight seeing as having an extra pair of hands would make things go by faster.

"It's no problem."

"I'll admit, I think I'm a lot more prepared for next week than I was this morning."

"That's good."

"Hopefully I'll be able to come close to you and Setsuna." She joked.

A slight redness grew on Midoriya's face at that comment. Sure he had good grades, but he doubted that Kendou would do any worse than him.

With the dishes and the rest of the cleaning now done, Midoriya decided that now was a good time to head back home. Even though it was still the weekend, he didn't want his mom to worry about him, any more than what she usually does. On top of that, he didn't want to overstay his welcome seeing as he had no idea what was socially acceptable in situations like these.

"Thanks again for coming today. I really appreciate it."

"Thank you for having me." He gave a polite bow.

"I'll see you later, Izuku."

Kendou saw the confused look on his face at hearing her call him by his first name and gave a shrug. "What? I call all my friends by their first names."

"You...really think of me as a friend?" He whispered out.

"Why wouldn't I? We hang out quite a bit and you're a pretty cool guy." Was her reply. Admittedly, she was a bit surprised at hearing that. She knew the guy didn't have a lot of friends, the only people she could possibly think of was Yamanaka and Jiro. But it shouldn't have that weird for her to refer to him as such. At least not to her.

"W-well it's just...never mind."

"So, do you want to be my friend?" She raised a curious eyebrow at him.

"Y-yeah, if t-that's okay with you."

"Cool."

"Y-y-yeah...well I-I'll see you at school then."

"You too." She said with a quick wave before he headed out the door. Leaving her to get ready for dinner with her parents.

* * *

That night, the Kendou family sat around the dinner table going over how their day went. Because of her parent's work at the auto-shop, the only time all of them really had a chance to sit down for dinner together was during the weekends. A time of week she always enjoyed.

"So I take it your study group was successful?" Daisuke Kendou asked in between bites.

"Yeah, I'm feeling a lot better about our exams now."

"Well that's good." Mikoto said before shooting her daughter a smirk. "So...what's going on between you and that Midoriya boy?"

"Huh?"

"I saw how you two were acting when he was helping you clean up earlier. He seems like he's got a good head on his shoulders. And he's pretty strong from what we saw on T.V.. I approve."

"Now Itsuka…" Daisuke looked to his daughter. "I'm fine with you dating, you are at that age after all. Just remember that I'm _way_ too young to be a grandfather."

"Dad!"

* * *

**Author's Notes: A bit of an easy chapter this time. Honestly I had a couple of more Tokage teasing moments I wanted to plug in, but I'll save those for when everyone moves into the dorms. But I think I accomplished what I was trying to do. Next chapter is are the exams and I'm just about done writing that chapter out. I think you guys will like it. **

**1\. I really like reading your guy's input in the reviews, they help me piece together things in the story that I'm having trouble with. I'm trying to make this thing as "interactive" as I can. That being said, are there any pro heroes that you guys would like to make an appearance? I can't decide on one myself. **

**As always, thanks for reading and don't be afraid to drop a review or send me a PM. **


	17. Semester Exams: Part 3

After the long and grueling three days of written exams came to a close, Kendou and the students of class 1-B were feeling really good about themselves. So far none of them had even come close to failing any of their tests. Naturally, Tokage, Monama and Shishida were the top scorers overall, but Kendou managed to ace everything. Albeit with a bit of struggling on her English exam.

Everything was looking up for them. That is until Vlad King and the principal informed them that they were changing up their practical exam this year. Instead of fighting robots like previously thought, they were going to be going up against their own teachers of all people. More than a few not-so-subtle groans came from the hero course students at this curveball. Kendou had told the rest of her class about how the exam went in previous years, but now was mentally kicking herself for doing that. At one point Shiozaki made a comment about how this was "divine retribution" for them getting information on the exam early and immediately went into a prayer for forgiveness.

Luckily for Kendou, she was partnered up with Manga Fukidashi. He was a quiet kind of guy, but his quirk made up for her lack of long range fighting capability. Even with his low aptitude for hand-to-hand combat. Something she was sure was intentionally factored into their pairing.

When students made their way into the viewing room, they were greeted with not only the entirety of class 1-A, but all of the teachers as well. There were even a few staff members present that she had never seen before. Everyone was packed inside and looking intently at the main monitor.

"Hey Momo-chan, what's going on? Why is everyone crowded in here?" Kendou walked up to the raven haired vice-rep.

"The last exam is about to start."

"Who's up?"

"It's Bakugou-san, Midoriya-san and Todoroki-san against All Might-sensei."

"Seriously?" A few 1-B students echoed.

"They're facing All Might?"

"How'd they get so lucky?!" Tetsutetsu looked around for an answer.

"Lucky? More like unfortunate." Kaibara said.

"Since Iida-san couldn't partake in the practical exam they put the three of them in one group." Yayoyorozu clarified.

"Oh, this is going to be good." A few students smirked. It wasn't everyday that people got a chance to watch All Might fight. Most of his battles were done in the blink of an eye. But with the numerous strength limiters that the teachers were given, maybe they'd get to see a good bit of action. It was like getting a private show that everyone wanted to see.

* * *

**"Izuku Midoriya, Shoto Todoroki and Katsuki Bakugou, battle trail commence."** The voice of the announcer rang through the training ground.

"So it's pretty obvious why all of us were put into a group. They're trying to see if we can actually work together or not." Midoriya stated as the group walked down the main road of Training Ground Beta

"I agree. Midoriya, do you have a plan on how we're going to pass?" Todoroki looked to the quirk inheritor.

"Our best bet is to avoid All Might if we can. We're simply outclassed. Todoroki-san, when it comes to mobility you're the weak link. So what we need to-."

The loud voice of Bakugou was quick to interrupt Midoriya's explanation. "Shut the fuck up, Deku! No one wants to hear your lame ass plan!"

"As I was saying, you're the least mobile out of all us. So to fix that-" Midoriya continued on after a brief sigh, as if he hadn't heard anything.

"Don't fucking ignore me you damn nerd! The only thing that's going to happen is me blasting that smile off of All Might's face."

"Surely you're not foolish enough to think that you can actually take on All Might." Todoroki asked Bakugou, even though he already knew the answer.

"I'm not running away from this fight, IcyHot. It'll look better when I beat him."

_"Or when hell freezes over."_ Midoriya mumbled under his breath.

"What the fuck did you say, Deku? Don't that just because you now have that shitty quirk of your's that you can run your mouth at me. You're still just a coward who ran the fuck away. Once we're done here, I'll make sure to put you in your place."

"That's a pretty bold statement considering Midoriya has already defeated you."

"Alright half-and-half, that's the last fucking ti-"

Before Bakugou could finish whatever insult he was about to say, a massive surge of wind came barreling down the street at the three of them. Neither student had a chance to react before they were all swept up and thrown across the road.

"What's the matter boys? Are you having difficulties already? The test just started." The three of them looked up only to see All Might casually walking talking towards them. Only one thing on their minds when they noticed a glow in one of his striking blue eyes.

_'When the hell did he get so intimidating?'_

Bakugou was the first to act and wasted no time in launching himself at the elder 'One for All' user. He let off a serious of violent blasts in all directions, but each one had no effect. Bakugou quickly used his left hand to maneuver under him and sent a pillar of fire upwards. However, just as the blast ended, All Might grabbed him by the face and held him at eye level. The blonde haired man proceeded to gut punch him with enough force to send him flying skyward. Midoriya powered up his quirk and jumped into the air to grab Bakugou.

Todoroki then sent a massive wave of ice at All Might to serve as a distraction only seconds before he felt Midoriya's arm wrap around his waist and pull him away. The only thing All Might could see after shattering the massive wall was the sight of green electricity fleeing into the distance.

"Why the hell did you pull me away you useless nerd?!" Bakugou shouted at Midoriya after he dropped him onto the ground. The trio were now in an alleyway a good five hundred meters away from their teacher.

"Because you're being foolish. You're not going to beat him."

"That's it, I don't wanna hear another word! Don't think you can tell me what to do!"

"There's no point in you two arguing. We need to come up with an actual plan." Todoroki interjected, growing more and more annoyed with how this was already playing out.

"I already told you. I'm going to beat the breaks off of him and prove that I'm the best hero out here!"

"You're still as childish as ever." Midoriya scoffed.

That moment, something snapped in Bakugou's head and he launched his right hand at Midoriya, ready to blast him into next week. It proved useless though as Midoriya grabbed his wristed an angled to blast upwards and away from both him and Todoroki. The two giving each other intense glares while in their momentary standoff.

On the other side of the training ground, All Might noticed the smoke from the explosion and dashed towards their location.

* * *

"What are these guys doing? They've spent more time arguing than trying to strategize." Tsuburaba shouted.

"Did he seriously just try to blast Midoriya-san in the middle of the test?" Rin said in disbelief.

"Can someone tell me what the hell Bakugou's deal is? I get that he's just a giant ball of anger and ego, but they might actually stand a chance if he tried to work with Wonderboy and Todoroki." Tokage looked to the students of 1-A for an explanation.

"I bet he's just bitter that he's teamed up with the guy who punched him into next week." Kamakiri laughed.

"To be honest, we don't really know. Bakugou's just got a serious bone to pick with Midoriya." Kaminari shrugged.

"Why?"

"No idea." Ashido admitted.

"None of you ever bothered to ask?"

"A few of us have, but neither one would budge. Midoriya isn't necessarily the nicest guy in the world so we just thought it had something to do with that."

"And Bakugou-san's the paragon of kindness? Even we know the guy has a massive ego problem." Honenuki said.

"Hey, at least he talks to us." Said Sero.

"What?"

"Bakugou may be a bit off the handle, but at least he interacts with the class. Midoriya pretty much just blows everyone off and Todoroki isn't that much better."

_'They can't be serious.'_ The students of 1-B all thought simultaneously.

"Hey, Jiro-chan. Do you know what the deal is with those two? You guys went to middle school together so you've known him the longest." Kendou asked the _'earphone jack'_ user.

All Jiro could do was give an apologetic shrug seeing as she had no idea herself. "Not a clue. Bakugou didn't go to school with us. Maybe he knew Midoriya before he transferred?"

* * *

Before Midoriya and Bakugou's disagreement could go any further, a gust of wind on the other side of the alley alerted them to the presence of their teacher.

"Are you boys done running away?" All Might stepped towards the trio. He had an aura around him that sent a chill up their spines.

"Todoroki-san!" Midoriya shouted to the heterochromatic boy.

The half-and-half user wasted no time in erecting another giant wall of ice in between them and All Might. Only for the pro to punch it into shards a moment later.

"A nice try!"

Just then, All Might dashed in front of Midoriya and punched him so hard that the force flung him back to the other end of the alley. Somehow in that time he managed to gut punch the other two students, he proceeded to let loose on him. First was left handed haymaker that Midoriya managed slip under, but he instantly followed up with a right uppercut. Midoriya barely managed to throw his guard up before being flung skywards.

He powered up his _'Full Cowling'_ to fifteen percent and landed on the roof of one of the nearby buildings. But the second his toe hit the ground, All Might was already on top of him. The younger 'One for All' user barely had a second to react before dropping his body down to the ground to avoid the powerful blast of wind that more than likely would've knocked him unconscious.

This proved to be a fatal mistake though, because All Might immediately grabbed him by the right leg and flug him into the nearby water tower. Even though 'One for All' gave him an elevated level of resistance, taking blows like that was not a good idea. And he didn't have anywhere near the level of durability that his predecessor had in his muscle form. This was going to be a battle speed not power. Even with the numerous strength limiters, he was barely able to match the pro's raw speed.

He contemplated powering up to eighteen percent, but the downside to that was it drained his stamina quicker and he couldn't take that risk. Just as thoughts began to run wild in hopes of formulating a strategy, All Might appeared in front of him once again and pinballed him up and down a nearby alleyway.

* * *

"Holy shit! Ow! Shiozaki, what the hell? Ow!" Awase rubbed his face after getting hit with one of Shiozaki's vines for the thousandth time this year.

"I already told you watch your language. Your words are sinful." The vine haired girl gave him a threatening scowl.

"Dude, All Might's giving Midoriya the business." Kaminari said out loud, echoing everyone's thoughts.

"I guess that's what he gets for being his favorite." Said Mineta, who for some reason migrated to the back of the viewing room.

"What?"

"Most of our class is under the impression that All Might-sensei likes Midoriya-san more than the rest of us." Yaoyorozu clarified.

"Why would you say that?" Asked Kendou.

"There have been more than a few times where the two of them have been spotted heading off together during lunch. Aoyama-san even says that he caught them walking to teachers lounge once after school."

"That's weird."

_'I wonder what that's all about.'_

"Y'know...it is possible that the two of them-" Before Mineta could finish what was sure to be some lewd comment, Tsuyu Asui's tongue went flying across the room and smacked him in the face.

"Not another word, gero."

* * *

Somehow, Midoriya managed to momentarily get away from All Might, which gave him a second to catch his breath. But that was short lived the second he heard a loud and authoritative voice from right above him.

"Young Midoriya, catch!"

Midoriya gawked in total disbelief as All Might threw the remains of a crush car directly at him. He jumped backwards into the air as the vehicle landed a couple of meters in front of where he was previously standing.

_'I guess I should be glad that he wasn't actually trying to hit me with that.'_

Suddenly, the familiar voice of Bakugou broke his train of thought. "Get outta the way Deku!"

Neither one of them had enough time to react before colliding with each other mid-air. Both boys immediately drop down to the street with painful grunts.

"Dammit!" The now annoyed Bakugou shouted.

* * *

"Did All Might-sensei seriously just throw a car at Midoriya-san?" A wide eyed Shoda watched in disbelief.

_"I'm glad it's not me out there."_ Tsunotori mumbled under her breath in English.

"That oaf is going to overdo it!" Recovery Girl angrily waved her cane at the screen.

"This is a fucking disaster." Awase facepalmed, Kaibara and Tsuburaba nodding in agreeance.

"It ain't looking too good for Todoroki and Wonderboy. Honestly I would've already considered leaving Bakugou behind. He's obviously not trying to be a team player. And he keeps getting in the way. The smart thing to do would've been for him and Todoroki to blindside All Might while he was letting Wonderboy have it."

"You're not wrong. But Izuku and Todoroki-san will probably get points marked off for abandoning him." Kendou voiced her opinion.

_'Izuku?'_ Jiro, Yaoyorozu, Tetsutetsu and Shiozaki all took note of the use of the green haired boy's first name.

_'Oh, we're definitely going to be revisiting that later.'_ Tokage deviously smirked.

* * *

"Hey All Might, the real fight is over here!" Bakugou shouted as he launched himself back at All Might.

"I admire your tenacity young Bakugou. But you should know better than to come at me without your teammates."

"I don't need those two losers help. I'm about to show you why I'm going to be the next number one hero. And that I'm better than that useless, Deku!" He shot back. Suddenly the boy raised his left arm into the air and aimed his gauntlet at the pro. He then pulled the safety pin and a massive wave of fire quickly fell upon him. The following blast was large enough to send out a plume of smoke that completely obstructed the camera's view.

* * *

"What was that?" A few 1-B students shouted.

"Bakugou's gauntlets store up his sweat so he can release it all in one giant blast."

"That's insane."

The only thing Kendou was focused on in that moment was Midoriya and how much of a beating he had already taken. This was looking bad for them and was probably going to get worse. Sure, she could shoot Todoroki some bail seeing as he was the least mobile of the three of them and actually had to run to get to where the fight was taking place. But Bakugou was actively hindering everything by haphazardly jumping head first into a confrontation with All Might. She knew he had good battle instincts, but this was a total mismatch based on power alone.

From their earlier interactions that they had witnessed on screen, there was no denying that him working alongside the both of them was a lost cause. On top of that, All Might wasn't about to give Midoriya and Todoroki a moment to catch their breath and think of a good strategy.

_'Come on Izuku. You gotta find a way to get out of this.'_

* * *

Somehow in the middle of all that, Midoriya managed to see Todoroki sprinting towards them a few hundred meters down the road and carried him close to where Bakugou had let off that blast.

"Are you alright, Todoroki-san?" Midoriya asked. He had taken the least amount of physical damage out of the three of them, but after making two gigantic ice walls that proved to be useless and one decent punch to the chest, he was getting close to his limit.

"I'm fine. We need to do something about Bakugou. Usually he's pretty level headed but right now he's just in the way."

"I have a plan that might work. But neither of us are going to like it very much."

"What is it?"

* * *

Bakugou didn't have enough time to assess the damage of his explosion before All Might's massive form was right on top of him. He managed to put his arms up to defend himself but the force of the ensuing blow was enough to completely shatter his gauntlets. He was banking on getting off another blast at close range, but that was now out the window.

"A valiant attempt young Bakugou. But that wasn't enough."

"Like hell I'd let you defeat me!" He faced his palm towards the blonde haired man, only for it to be knocked upward. In a split second, he found himself careening towards the asphalt and felt the impact of the ground at his back. When Bakugou finally looked up, All Might was standing over him.

He somehow managed to stand on both feet and give the pro hero one last attempt at an attack.

"You should just forfeit young Bakugou. You would've had a much easier time if you just worked with your teammates."

"I already told you, I don't need help from those shitty losers. Especially not that useless Deku. I'm going to show you that I'm better than the both of them." He huffed out in between breaths. He was already exhausted and his forearms were starting to throb. But he'll be damned if he wasn't about to give this asshole a good beating.

"That pride will be your downfall one day, my boy. But allow me to put you out of your misery." All Might taunted as he readied his right hand for what was sure to be a final blow. All Bakugou could do was curse to himself as he prepared for the impending impact. Suddenly...

**"Delaware Smash!"** The voice of Midoriya boomed from the sky above them. Just before a massive air blast landed between the two.

"Young Midoriya?" All Might looked up to see his successor quickly descending down. What happened next shocked not only him, but everyone watching.

In one quick motion, Midoriya landed on the ground and powered down his _'Full Cowling'_ to nine percent only a split second before punching Bakugou square in the face. The "Symbol of Peace" was so thrown off by this that it didn't even register in his mind that the green haired boy had grabbed his classmate and dashed off with him over his shoulder.

* * *

"What the fuck?" Several students all shouted in unison.

"Hell yeah, Wonderboy. Nice hit!" Tokage cheered with a triumphant fist in the air.

"Check out Todoroki-san!" Komoroi pointed to another monitor.

* * *

On the battlefield, Todoroki took advantage of the momentary confusion to erect yet another ice wall around All Might. Deciding that the herterochractic teen could be dealt with quickly, he dashed over to where he was. But on his way over, a massive pillar of fire erupted in front of him.

_'These are some serious flames.'_ All Might thought to himself before swiping away the flames with a gust of wind. When he finally set eyes on Todoroki's face, he noticed a very uncharacteristic smile. For a split second he wondered what that could've meant before the realization hit him. Instead of taking down Todoroki then and there, he turned around and ran towards the finish line. _'I really am getting old if a simple distraction like that was enough to take my eyes off young Izuku. He should be getting near the exit as we speak.'_

True to form, Midoriya was rapidly approaching the exit gate. Hopping in between alleyways to avoid detection. All he needed was for Todoroki to give him a couple of seconds to get away and he'd drag Bakugou and himself across to the finish line. The moment he saw the gate, the hairs on the back of his neck suddenly stood on end and he barely managed to shift himself and Bakugou to the left just in time to avoid All Might's giant right hand making a grab for him.

"That was a bold move, young Midoriya!"

Instead of response, the quirk inheritor turned back around and made one last dash for the finish line that was barely two hundred meters away. He powered up to eighteen percent and in a stunning burst of speed that left the rest of the students and teachers in awe, he made a mad dash for the exit. But just as he was about fifteen meters away, he felt the hand of All Might grab his left leg.

Without a moment's hesitation, he threw Bakugou's unconscious body across the gate before another one of All Might's fists could make contact. Sending him flying into the nearby bus.

* * *

**"Katsuki Bakugou has crossed the finish line."** Said the voice of the announcer.

"Well that's one down." Jiro said, breathing a small sigh of relief.

"But Todoroki-san and Midoriya-san are both pretty tired from what we can tell."

"It truly pains me to say this, but one of them is going to have to be the sacrificial lamb." Shiozaki said regrettably. Her hands clasped together, silently wishing the best outcome for them.

"I agree. But who's it gonna be?"

"It'll have to be Todoroki-san. Midoriya-san is faster so he should be the one to escape." Honenuki spoke up.

"But All Might's not letting him out of his sight. He's fast and all, but he can't get away from him. On top of that Todoroki is way on the other end of the map."

* * *

Midoriya managed to dodge an oncoming punch from his predecessor just in time to see him leave an even bigger dent in the bus. He made another mad dash towards the exit, but All Might was fast enough to cut him off once again. Instead of making the obvious play and trying to slip past him, he powered up to fifteen percent and ran down the connecting road. He knew that his plan still had a chance of working if he managed to avoid taking anymore hits. But even with the weights slowing him down, All Might was still faster than him at eighteen percent, even if it was just barely.

Suddenly a thought popped into the green haired boy's head. It was an incredibly stupid idea, but if he had any hopes of winning this he had to do it. Without much time to think it over, he descended down to the main road and waited for All Might to join him. And sure enough, once the pro landed right in front of him the two stared at each other for a moment.

"Are you done running away, young Midoriya?" All Might asked, curious as to what the boy could be planning.

_'I'm so going to regret this later.'_ He thought before he let the power of 'One for All' rise inside of him. 'One_ for All': Full Cowling twenty percent!'_ He shouted internally. The moment he activated it, the electricity surrounding his body erupt more violently than normal. His skin adopted a reddish hue and his hair was beginning to stand on its own. The blonde haired man immediately recognized this, remembering the last time he tried to activate his quirk at twenty percent. Wondering if his successor truly had managed to level up.

Meanwhile, inside Midoriya's head he was doing everything he could to calm his brain down. The last time he tried this, the strain on body left him immobile for a full day. Although he knew he didn't have to worry about breaking any bones at this level, his muscles were screaming for him to stop. But for some reason the pressure in his bod wasn't as intense as the last time, it still hurt like hell to just stand but not as bad as his previous attempts. He quickly shook that out of his head. All he needed right now was to bear the pain and worry about that later.

* * *

"I think Midoriya-san just went super saiyan." Shoda remarked.

"Or he just unlocked the fourth gate." Kaibara responded.

"Is this him at full power? I've never seen him like that before." Yaoyozoru wondered out loud.

"Whatever it is, it certainly doesn't look too comfortable. You can see it on his face." Shizoaki pointed a hand towards the screen.

"Whatever he's doing, it definitely made All Might stop in his tracks."

_'That looks insane.'_ Kendou thought to herself, wide eyes glued onto her friend's body. Something that did not go unnoticed by Tokage.

* * *

All Might's smile grew ever so slightly at the sight of his successor. The fact that he was able to stand while holding twenty percent was something to be proud of. He couldn't help but want to see how well he could do with it. "I'm impressed, young Midoriya. Do you think that you can manage to best me in your current state?"

"I guess we're about to find out." He gave him a shaky smile.

"I'm looking forward to i-" Before All Might could finish his statement, Midoriya jetted towards him with a burst of speed that he was not expecting and landed a resounding punch on his face. The impact was enough to make him stumble back a bit.

* * *

"Well...I certainly wasn't expecting that." Said Midnight, who's eyes blew open at what just happened on the screen. The rest of teachers and staff sharing similar looks.

"Did he…" Monanma started.

"Just land a hit…" Followed by Kirishima and Tetsutetsu.

"On All Might!" Everyone else shouted in unison.

* * *

That one move was enough to let Midoriya know that he definitely didn't have twenty percent under control like he previously hoped. The second he landed on his feet, he immediately clutched his arm as a wave of pain briefly shot up his limb. It definitely didn't feel like a break, but needless to say he was not about to try that again. He powered down to fifteen percent once again and he could already feel the soreness take over his entire body. In truth he wanted to pass out, but that was not an option.

He turned back around to see his predecessor giving him his usual smile. A slight mark on his right cheek.

"That was certainly impressive, young Midoriya. But let's see how you deal with this." All Might reared back his fist. Midoriya immediately knew what was about to happen. He also knew this was probably going to deplete whatever energy he had left. But he didn't have much of a choice.

**"Texas…"**

**"25% Texas…"**

**"Smash!"** Both of them howled as the wind pressure of their attacks collided midway and blew away everything in the surrounding area.

* * *

"Did they just go blow for blow on a "Texas Smash"?" Kamakiri looked around.

"That's some serious power these two have." said Shoji.

"I'll say."

_'Izuku did say he was a pretty big All Might fan.'_ Kendou internalized.

"Hey guys…."

* * *

With that attack, Midoriya immediately dropped to his knees and began heavily panting. His left arm was on fire and he had almost no strength left to move.

"You've impressed me, my boy. But it looks like you overworked yourself." All Might walked up to him, only receiving a few ugly grunts in response. Although he wanted to give the boy a respite from the fighting, he couldn't right now. It wouldn't be fair to him nor would it help him grow. Instead he decided to end it quickly.

"Even though you failed, you showed some wonderful resolve. I'm proud of you." He said as he raised his hand up into the air, ready to deliver the final blow. "It pains me to do this, young Midoririya. But that's just ho-"

**"Shoto Todoroki has crossed the finish line. Team Midoriya, Bakugou and Todoroki have passed."**

…

…

…

"What?!" All Might's head whipped around so fast you could almost hear his neck crack.

The sound of Midoriya letting out a couple of weak laughs from below him immediately drew his attention.

"We knew you'd assume that I was the one who was going to go for the exit. So I made sure to draw away your attention."

"Wha- how?" The blonde haired man looked in confusion. "You were trying to carry young Bakugou to the finish line."

"I never planned on crossing the finish line myself. I just needed to drop Bakugou off close enough to the gate for Todoroki-san to carry him over himself. Call it double fake-out."

Instead of asking another question, the blonde haired hero immediately jump on top of the nearby building and looked towards the exit. Sure enough, in the distance he saw the form of Todoroki on his knees, barely passed the finish line. And from the looks of it, he was red faced and breathing very rapidly.

_'He covered over eight hundred meters that fast? He must've sprinted the entire way. I was so distracted by young Izuku that I completely forgot about young Todoroki.'_

"Hey All Might!" Midoriya shouted to his predecessor. Giving him a wide smile and a shaky thumbs up before passing out on the street.

All Yagi could do was give a slight chuckled at actually being outsmarted by his students. _'I really am getting old.'_

* * *

Back in the viewing room, a few students were giving off congratulatory cheers as they watched the medical robots go pick up the three students who managed to pass their exams. While the conversations of how the fight went began around her, only one thing crossed Kendou's mind.

_'Wow, Izuku has a really nice smile.'_ She thought, mentally replaying the image of him giving the thumbs up to All Might before passing out. Instantly she felt her face heat up into a furious shade of red. _'What the heck was that?'_ She wondered before smacking herself with both hands to get whatever she was previously thinking out of her head.

"Excuse me, Itsuka. Are you okay?" The voice of Shiozaki broke her out of her thoughts.

"Y-yes! I mean...yes, I am fine."

"Are sure, you seem a bit flushed."

"Yeah, I'm just a bit nervous. I'm first up and it's going to be hard trying to follow that." She quickly waved off.

"Oh alright then, just making sure. But I'm certain that you will be fine."

"Thanks for the support Ibara."

* * *

After the 1-B exams were over, Kendou made her way over to the infirmary to check up on Midoriya. She had heard from Jiro that him and Bakugou were still recovering from their match with All Might and wanted to see if her friend was doing well. He looked pretty ragged after the fight was over and based on how Recovery Girl's quirk worked, he probably didn't have a lot of energy left. She made it there just in time to see Bakugou storm past her down the hall looking like he wanted to kill somebody.

Thankfully, Recovery Girl had no issue with her waiting by his bedside until he woke up. Even though it was barely past noon, the teachers gave them the rest of the day off so it wasn't like she had anything else better to do. She only had to wait about ten minutes before the sound of him tossing around drew her attention away from her phone.

"Hey, you're finally awake." She greeted him with a warm smile.

"K-Kendou-san, what are you d-doing here?" He quickly sat up, immediately regretting it due to the soreness that was still lingering over his body.

"I came to check up on you, and to congratulate you on passing. You really put on quite the show."

"You really think so?"

"Of course." She gave him an approving nod. "I'm pretty sure there's a very short list of people who could actually land a punch on All Might."

"I-I guess you're right." He sheepishly rubbed the back of his head.

Kendou couldn't help but find it funny how this was the same guy who, only a few hours ago, got into a standoff with the "Symbol of Peace".

"So how are you feeling?"

"Tired, and sore."

"I bet." Kendou said with a short chuckle. "So do you mind if I ask you a question?"

"S-sure."

"What's the deal with you and Bakugou? It looked like you two were ready to mess each other up out there." She inquired, taking note of how quickly his facial expression had shifted into something she couldn't quite place.

"It's…personal." He averted his eyes away from her.

Although she definitely wanted to know what the story behind that was, she didn't press the topic any further. Whatever the issue was between the two, it really wasn't any of her business. Maybe she'll get an answer later on.

"I get it. Just curious is all."

"Yeah." He said before switching topics. "So did you pass your exam?"

"Yeah, Fukidashi-san and I managed to make it out before time ran out. Ectoplasm-sensei is seriously hard to handle, luckily his clones aren't very strong."

"That's good."

"Yeah. I seriously can't believe you almost broke your arm trying to go blow-for-blow will All Might. You're braver than I am, that's for sure." She pointed to the bandages covering his affected limb. This was the second time she had seen this happen and was curious as to why that was. She wondered if there was any backlash to using his quirk at the level that she had witnessed.

"Yeah, it was kind of reckless wasn't it?"

"Of course it was you meathead! Didn't I already tell you not to push yourself so darn hard?!" Recovery shouted at him while angrily waving her cane in the air.

"S-sorry, Recovery Girl."

"Don't be sorry, be careful." The healing quirk user flicked him on the forehead. "Now, you're good to go. We just need to find someone to take you back home. Toshinori won't be done with his meeting for a while so you'll just have t-"

"I can take him back." Kendou offered for some reason, surprising herself just as much as him. Why did she say that?

The elderly heroine looked her up and down for second before giving a quick shrug. "Ah yes, you're one of his classmates, right?"

"Yeah."

"Good, please make sure this fool doesn't do anything reckless on the way back. I don't trust him to not almost break something else before he gets home."

"I'm sorry."

"He's hopeless."

"No problem, I'll make sure he gets back safely."

With that said, the two of them made their way out of school. It was still early so they had all the time in the world to make it back. During their walk, Kendou decided to strike up a conversation with him.

"She really has it in for you, huh?"

"Y-yeah. It's not the first time I've had to see her this semester. She doesn't want me to make a habit out of it."

"I don't blame her."

"Yeah." Midoriya blushed a bit. "You really didn't have to walk me back home, Kendou-san. I know you live pretty far away."

"Don't worry about, just think of it as my good deed for the day. Plus it's not even two o'clock yet."

"Well, t-thank you."

It wasn't long before the two of them made it to his apartment. It was pretty nice neighborhood from what she could tell, and it wasn't very far from the school. She was kind of jealous that he didn't have to deal with waking up as early as she did every morning.

"Alright, this is it."

"Cool."

"I'm sorry again for wasting your time."

"Like I said, it was no sweat."

"Right. So I guess I'll see you next week."

"Definitely."

Just then the front door opened revealing a woman that she assumed to be his mother, judging by the green hair. Although she was a few centimeters shorter than her, the woman was pretty fit looking. She wasn't skinny, but definitely had a nice figure. Evidently their family was all about the "fitness" life.

"Izuku, is that you?" She poked her head out the door, looking at him with a worried expression before her eyes shifted over to Kendou. "Oh hi, are you one Izuku's classmates?"

"Kinda, she just helped walk me home after…I'll explain later."

"Oh is that so? Well would your friend like to come in? I just got done making stir fry."

Hoping to avoid any of the numerous embarrassing moments that might occur from something like that, he quickly interjected. "We really shouldn't waste anymore of her time."

"Actually, I'd like to stay." Kendou said with a smile, taking both of them by surprise.

"Really?" Midoriya looked to her.

"Yeah, sure. I love stir fry." Plus she was pretty hungry since she hadn't eaten anything since her exam.

"See, now why don't you come in and help me set the table. I'll get the food ready."

"Okay."

"Thank you for having me, Midoriya-san."

"Oh you can just call me Inko dear."

* * *

"A car…" Inko's face dropped into a deadpan expression. "He threw a car at you?"

"Yeah, obviously he wasn't trying to hit me with it. But it was kinda out of nowhere."

"Well at least you're okay." She let out a sigh, already planning to have a talk with Yagi as soon as possible for doing something so reckless to her baby boy. "I'm glad to hear that you passed. How about you Kendou-chan? How did you do on your exams?"

"I passed, barely."

"Well that's good to hear." The elder Midoriya gave her a warm smile. "So I take it that you're going to the summer camp as well?"

"Sure am. The training is supposed to be hardcore and I can't wait to get started. Especially if I'm ever going to catch up to Izuku here."

The fact that the girl had used her son's first name didn't go unnoticed by Inko. But, she decided to put that aside for the time being. Their lunch continued on pretty regularly from that point on. The three of them casually discussing random topics until Kendou felt it was a good time to take her leave.

"Thank you for having me Inko-san. The food was delicious." The ginger teen gave a polite bow for her hospitality.

"Oh, you're too kind. Come by anytime."

"Sure."

"Izuku, be a gentleman and see her out."

"Uh, r-right."

With that, Kendou grabbed her stuff and let Midoriya walk her out the door. The two having a quick conversation before her departure.

"Thanks for letting me stay, Izuku. Sorry if I was a bother."

"No it's fine. I owed you for walking me home anyway."

"So, I guess I'll see you next week."

"Yeah."

For some unknown reason, Kendou's body moved on its own and she wrapped her arms around him in a tight hug. Midoriya had no clue what to do about this and stood as still as a statue, his entire head turning a furious shade of red. The two stayed like that for a good few seconds before the reality of what she was doing finally hit her.

"U-uh, I'll...see you later." Kendou abruptly pulled away, feeling the heat in her cheeks quickly rising. Doing everything possible to not look him in the face.

"Y-you...too." He stuttered out.

With nothing more to say, the orange haired teen quickly turned on her heels and proceeded to walk down the steps of the apartment complex. Leaving Midoriya in a state of utter confusion. Was that something that friends usually do when saying goodbye to each other? He had no clue. He knew that girls were typically more expressive and "affectionate" with their friends. Maybe that was just a normal thing for her.

"She seems like a nice girl." The voice of Inko snapped him out of his oncoming mental rant. He turned his head to see her standing in the doorway with a bit of a smirk.

"Y-yeah."

"I'm glad that you're making friends sweetie. But, I don't know how I should feel about you bringing so many pretty young girls over here. Do we need to have the talk again?"

"What?!"

"Now, now Izuku. I know you're at that age now, but I'm still too young to be a grandmother."

"Mom!"

* * *

**Author's Notes: Definitely not the ending to the fight that you guys were expecting, huh? I originally planned on having it go differently, but I just thought it would be funny to have All Might essentially forget about Todoroki because he was so focused and proud of Midoriya. Especially since things are going to get rather serious in a few chapters. I know I haven't involved him much in the story up until now, but rest assured that Todoroki will have some pretty epic moments in the upcoming chapters. **

**1\. I just wanted to clarify to everyone the state of class 1-A right now. Not everyone in the class has a negative opinion of Midoriya. If you pay attention, you will see that it's only certain students who are seen bath mouthing him in any way. I'll let you guys speculate as to why that is. His personality is slightly different than what it was at the start of the year, but those initial interactions left a bad taste in their mouths. But, he is actively making an effort to be more social, it just so happens that most of the people he's doing that with are in 1-B. **

**2\. Do you guys like the pace that their relationship is moving? I'm trying to keep a steady incline but don't want it to feel too forced? Does it feel too forced? It's still technically a slow burn and things won't really take off until after the training camp, but I don't want things to feel rushed. **

**3\. The story will be getting pretty dark again in the next few chapters, so I'm warning you now. There are going to be a couple of more self-harm scenes so I'm sorry in advance if you don't like those very much. I'll try to do them justice. **

**4\. If you read my other story, you will know that I'm not a fan of Bakugou in the slightest. I completely understand the complexity of his character and his development in cannon, but that still isn't enough to make me like him (In my opinion he's got deep psychological issues that no one has ever bothered to address because they see so much "potential" in him). That being said, I will try to avoid picking on him too much, but his development so far in the story is drastically different than what it is in cannon. He won't be making many appearances, but when he is the story they will have some meaning to them. But right now, he's pretty just a Midoriya hater. So sorry to all the Kacchan fans out there. **

**As always, thanks for reading and don't be afraid to drop a review.**


	18. Mall Trip

_~Chat Renamed To: Setsuna and the Jurassics~_

T-Rex: Anybody down to go to do some shopping this afternoon?"

Fist: ?

T-Rex: A new mall just opened up in Kiyashi Ward.

T-Rex: I need to get some last minute shopping done for the training camp. So I just thought: "Hey, why not invite everybody?"

Dumbbell: I'm down.

Microphone: Sounds like a good idea.

Fist: Sure

Cross: I would be delighted to join you.

Raven: I'll have to decline. I have other arrangements today. I apologize.

T-Rex: No sweat.

T-Rex: What about you Wonderboy?

All Might: What time?

T-Rex: 12:00?

All Might: I won't be done with training until 13:00.

Dumbbell: Plus it'll be super busy at that time.

Cross: Agreed.

Fist: How about 15:00?

T-Rex: Fine with me.

Microphone: Sounds good.

Dumbbell: Hell yeah!

Cross: Language. But 15:00 sounds wonderful.

All Might: Sounds good.

T-Rex: Sweet! See you guys there.

Dumbbell: So...is no one going to acknowledge the fact that Setsuna changed the name of the group?

* * *

Surprisingly, everyone managed to show up to the mall on time. As expected for the middle of the afternoon on a Friday, the place was still pretty packed. But it wasn't nearly as bad as the midday rush that places like this usually experienced. This was about the same time that most schools got out so there were a ton of kids their age roaming about.

"This place is amazing!" Tetsutetsu gawked at how massive the open roof venue looked.

"There must be hundreds of stores around here."

"They even have shops that cater to mutant types." Jiro pointed out to a few stores that specialized in custom apparel to fit the needs of particular quirks and appearances.

It only took a few minutes into their group excursion before a horde of young looking people pointed them out in the crowd.

"Hey aren't those U.A. students!"

"Yeah, I recognize a few of them from the Sports Festival."

"Hey, that's Midoriya. He won it all this year, right?"

"You guys are super awesome!"

"Midoriya, my friend Clarice thinks you're hot!" A girl with dark skin and snow white hair pointed to another with magenta colored hair, pink skin and green eyes.

All Midoriya could do was give a very awkward grin and wave to the two women. His cheeks almost matching her skin tone.

"I can't believe that they still remember that." Said a surprised Jiro.

"It looks like you got some stiff competition there Itsuka." Tokage whispered to Kendou just low enough for the others to not hear her. Along with a playful elbow.

"What are you-? Ugh, I'm not in the mood for you today." The orange haired teen let out an exasperated sigh, wondering just how this girl ended up becoming her best friend.

"So what's the game plan? I was planning on buying a pair of outdoor shoes while we're here." Tetsutetsu asked the group.

"I was hoping to track down a new duffle bag to bring to camp." Jiro spoke up.

"It seems like everyone needs to hit different places while we're here. Why don't we just split up and meet back here in an hour?" Kendou proposed.

"Fine by me."

"That sounds like a good idea."

"Awesome, see you guys in a few."

Tetsutetsu was the first to break away from the group to head over to whatever store he needed to go to. Followed quickly by Shiozaki, who was on her way to look for some special conditioner for her hair.

"Hey Midoriya, do you-"

"Jiro, my girl!" Tokage interrupted the purple haired girl by suddenly grabbing her arm and pulling her down the walkway. "I need to pick out a new set of headphones and I'd like your expert opinion on what I should get."

"Hey, why are yo-"

"Work with me here, girl. This is the only chance we have to get those two alone together." The _'lizard tail splitter'_ quirk user whispered into her ear.

"You mean Midoriya and Kendou?" Jiro looked back at the two of them who were still in the same spot.

"Of course."

"Wait...are they like a thing?"

"No, well not yet at least. Itsuka's crushing on him pretty hard but won't admit it. Honestly, the reason I invited you all here was to try and set these two up."

"Why?"

"Because it'll be funny and I need some good ammo to fuck with her later on."

"Those 1-B guys were right. You are pretty evil."

"Maybe~."

With Jiro and Tokage on their way, Modirya and Kendou were the only ones left. The two of them stood in awkward silence before Kendou decided to break the ice.

"Looks like it's just the two of us, then."

"Yeah."

"So what did you need to shop for?"

"I was hoping to buy a new set of heavier wrist and ankle weights."

"Makes sense, I need to get some new resistance bands anyway. Why don't we just head to the sporting goods store together?"

"S-sure."

It wasn't long before the duo located their desired store and purchased what they wanted to get. Luckily enough, the store owner gave them a discount on everything on account of being heroes in training. At first they tried not to take it, not wanting to get any special privileges for something that they felt they didn't deserve. But the man practically forced them to accept. In the end they decided to just roll with it.

"Finding all that stuff was easier than what I thought."

"Yeah, we still have half-an-hour left before we need to meet up with everyone else." Midoriya replied while looking at his phone.

"Yeah, there's really nothing else I need to get." Kendou looked around them for a moment, spotting a vending machine on the other side of the walkway. "Why don't we get a quick snack before heading back down there?"

"Sure."

The two of them ended up grabbing a couple of bottles of green tea and some protein bars before sitting down on the bench next to their rendezvous point. A few bites into her snack, Kendou used this opportunity to ask a question that's been on her mind since the exams.

"Hey Izuku, do you mind if I ask you a question?"

"What is it?"

"What's up with your quirk? During the exam when you powered up it looked like you were in some serious pain."

"Well…" His eyes darted from one end to another as he looked for the right words. "The truth is that I don't have full control over it yet. It causes pain if I overdo it."

"Really? That's pretty surprising given how strong you are."

"Yeah, the most I can handle without it hurting me is about eighteen percent. What you guys saw was me giving it go at twenty."

"Wait, what?" Kendou stopped mid-bite to look at him. "So you're telling me that was only twenty percent of your power?"

"Y-yeah."

"Geez, dude. I knew you were strong but that's just insane. Why do you have such a hard time controlling it? If you don't mind me asking."

"I've only had it for about a year and a half, so I guess I'm still getting use to it." The words came out of his mouth before he could stop himself.

_'Why did I just say that?'_

"Are you serious? You've only been able to use it that recently?"

"Yes…."

"Wow…" Was all she said before the realization finally hit her. "So you thought you were quirkless up until then?"

All Midoriya could do was give a quick nod to this question.

"Oh wow, I'm sorry to hear that. It must've been rough. I know quirkless people are treated pretty badly nowadays. Honestly it's something I can't stand to think about." Her mind momentarily flashing back to when Yamanaka had informed her that she was quirkless. Remembering how the girl told her that she was bullied because of it. In the back of her mind though, she now had a better idea of why the boy was so quiet and reserved. Unbeknownst to her, Midoriya was glad to hear that she didn't think any less of quirkless people.

"It wasn't all bad." He waved off.

"So what do you think made your quirk manifest all of a sudden?"

"Well…" He paused for a second as he carefully chose his words. Going with the cover story that he decided on a while back. "Most people think my quirk is a strength enhancement type, which I guess it is. But it's technically an accumulation type."

"I don't get it." She raised an eyebrow.

"You've heard of the pro hero Fatgum, right?"

"Yeah, he's actually the hero that Tamaki interns under."

"That's amazing!" He momentarily perked up before recomposing himself. "But uh...yeah, his quirk works by storing the fat in his body. Mine is kind of the same principle. According to the doctors it just took a few years for my body to store up enough energy to manifest it. That didn't happen until I started working out."

"Wow." She looked at him wide eyed before shooting him a smile. "Y'know, I'm kinda jealous of you now."

"Huh?"

"Yeah, you've had your quirk for such a short time and you're already so good with it. And it's super versatile too. Plus you're already skilled enough with it to get into to U.A. on recommendations. It makes me feel like I'm not doing good enough."

"Don't say that, Kendou-san. You're already pretty amazing and your quirk is really awesome." Kendou couldn't help but blush for a brief moment before shaking that out of her head. It wasn't everyday that someone complimented her on her quirk. Or called her "amazing".

"You think so? It's pretty bland if we're being honest."

"I don't think so at all. You can do a lot with it actually."

"Oh yeah, like what? It's good for fighting and grabbing people, but not much else."

"Oh u-uh well um...oh, I know. With how big your hands expand, you can use them like giant fans to blow stuff away or knock people off balance in a fight."

"Kinda like that air blast thing you use with your attacks?"

"Yeah."

"Hmmm...that's actually not a bad idea." The ginger teen tapped a finger to her chin for moment. She never thought of using her power indirectly like that before. She was rather impressed that someone else could even think about using it like that. But with someone as smart as him, it was expected. Kendou did hear Yaoyorozu mention that Bakugou told some of the other students that Midoriya had a habit of analyzing quirks. Did that mean that he did the same for her?

For some reason the idea of him thinking about her caused her heart rate to jump for split second and her ears got really hot. Not wanting him to see her like that, she quickly stood up and excused herself. "Excuse me for a second, I'm gonna go find a bathroom, I-I'll be right back."

"Alright."

As Midoriya watched his friend stroll off to find the nearest bathroom, a raspy male voice spoke to him from his left. For some reason it sounded familiar.

"Hey, you're one of those U.A. kids aren't you?" The guy in question wrapped an arm around his shoulder before he even had a chance to look at him.

"O-oh uh, yeah."

"Yeah, you're the guy who won the Sports Festival, right? I think I even saw you on T.V. after that whole villain attack on your school."

"M-maybe you did."

"It's so crazy running into you like this again."

_'Again?'_

"Yeah...the last time we saw each other was at the USJ."

_'Wait, what?'_

"It's been a long time, All Might's apprentice." Midoriya felt his blood freeze and his muscles tighten up at the man's words. The second he tried to turn his head, he felt the man's clammy hand quickly wrap around his neck. When he shifted his eyes, all he could see was a mess of light blue hair and beady red eyes. Only one person he knew of matched that description. "How have you been Izuku Midoriya? Let's have a talk."

"Tomorua Shigaraki."

* * *

_'What the hell is wrong with me?'_ Kendou thought to herself after splashing some cold water onto her face.

She had no clue as to why, but the idea of Midoriya thinking about her made her feel weird inside. She couldn't put her finger on it, but the feeling wasn't necessarily bad. But it didn't feel entirely good either. The worst thing about all of this was that she just up and left him by himself without any warning. The two of them just became friends and the last thing she needed was for Midoriya to think that she ditched him. Which was a real possibility considering that she's been here for the last ten minutes.

Finally deciding to shake whatever _that_ was out of her head, she made her way out of the bathroom and back to where she left him. By the time she was able to make it back, she was relieved to see that he hadn't left. The only thing odd was the fact that he was now sharing the bench with someone else. From the way the guy had his arm draped over Midoriya, one would think that the two were friends. Which was odd considering that she was sure he didn't have any up until recently.

"Sorry about that Izuku, I-" Kendou stopped in her tracks a couple of meters away from the two men when she finally noticed the hooded figure's hand around her friend's throat. Midoriya looking absolutely shaken to the core. "What are yo-...get your hands off of him you creep!"

"Oh man, sorry. I didn't know you were here with a friend. I thought you were the loner type." The stranger threw his hands up and gave her a creepy smile before standing up and walking away. "Don't follow me, I might get angry."

"You're not going anywhere you-" Just before the _'big fist'_ user could make a move to apprehend the guy, she was stopped by Midoriya grabbing her wrist.

"Shigaraki, what's All for One after?" He called out to him. His face way more intense than what she's seen before.

_'What's All for One?'_ Kendou shot him a questioning look just before something else clicked in her mind. _'Wait, isn't Shigaraki the name of the guy in charge of the League of Villains? What the hell is he doing here?'_

"No idea, that's his business. But try and remember this, the next time we see each other...I'm going to kill you."

That single threat was enough to make Kendou freeze in her tracks. She could tell by the tone of his dry voice that he meant every single word of that with every fiber of his being. Whoever that guy was, he meant business. All she could do was watch him disappear into the crowd with the silent promise of causing havoc if they tried to go after him.

"Are you alright, Izuku? What the hell was that guy doing here?" Kendou immediately diverted her attention the green haired boy. His face was visibly tensed and he was still shaking a bit.

"I'm fine." He managed to breath out. "We shouldn't try and follow him, he said he's got friends all over the place."

"Well I'm still calling the police. Maybe they can track him down before he gets too far."

"Alright." Was all he could respond with. He did his best not to worry her anymore than she already was, but he could only isolate one thought at that time. _'The Hero Killer is working with the League of Villains.'_

Needless to say, the rest of their day was pretty much ruined.

* * *

The following day, Kendou took it upon herself to try and cheer Midoriya up after what happened at Kiyashi Ward. Although he kept claiming that he was perfectly fine, she knew that after something like that it was good to be around friends to take your mind off things. Instead of heading out somewhere that they could potentially get cornered again, she convinced him to go along with her to U.A. to get another sparring session in at one of the training rooms she managed to reserve that morning. All in all, it was a pretty light session that was going pretty well. That is until Inko called wanting him to get back home. Which was more than understandable.

While the two of them made their way out of the school, the girls of 1-A were lounging about at the school pool. Hoping to get one final day of relaxation in before their summer training camp that was scheduled to start in the morning.

"Hey, isn't that Midoriya up there?" Ashido pointed to the overpass directly across from the school pool.

"Yeah, and he's with that 1-B girl, gero."

"So what, are those two like a thing or something?" Hagakure looked to Jiro.

"Why are you asking me?" The _'earphone jack'_ user scowled at her faceless friend.

"Well you're pretty buddy-buddy with him. You'd oughta know."

"And?"

"Hey, I'm just sayin'." She threw her hands up defensively. Even though the others couldn't tell.

"Y'know, he's not nearly as bad as you guys think. He's actually really cool."

"Oh really? Well, until he decides to actually talk to us and stops being so stuck up, I probably won't change my mind." Ashido crossed her arms.

"You could stand to be a bit more compassionate, Mina. He did get attacked by a villain yesterday, gero."

"Yeah, I guess you're right." The pinkette relented.

_'And yet she hangs around Bakugou….'_ Jiro thought to herself. Sure, she understood why a lot of them didn't like Midoriya, but sometimes it was a bit too much in her opinion. He still actively avoided conversations during class, but he was way less "mean" about it than at the start of the school year. If she was being honest, she had her own theories as to why that was. In her mind, all of the negativity amounted to a lingering inferiority complex that most of their class felt compared to him.

Yaoyorozu was very possibly jealous of how skilled he was overall even if she wouldn't admit it, especially since he was right on her tail when it came to their grades. Ashido and Hagakure just didn't like his attitude. Asui actually didn't have a problem with him but just let him have his space. And despite apparently saving her during the entrance exams, Uraraka was flat out intimidated by him. She didn't put too much thought into whatever their reasons were, that was their problem. She knew he was really a cool guy.

* * *

**Author's Notes: I'm going to be honest, this is my least favorite chapter of the story so far. It flows kind of weird but I like to think I got the point across of what I was trying to do. I hope you guys didn't hate it too much. **

**1\. I didn't feel like re-hashing the conversation with Midoriya and Shigaraki in this chapter. Just know that it went pretty much the same as it did in cannon with the exception of Stain working alongside (not with) the LoV, and Shigaraki is having a hard time dealing with that. Also, I decided that he would be aware of 'One for All' because I don't really see a reason for him not to be. That will come up later on in the story. **

**2\. We're finally getting into the training camp next chapter and I've been waiting to get to this part of the story. I've got a few things cooked up that I'm going to try and execute and I can't wait to see what you guys think. **

**3\. I decided to give a little bit of insight into Class 1-A, if only it was just the girls POV. Like I said, not everyone has a negative opinion of Midoriya and you guys will see a few students that actually like him besides Tokoyami, Todoroki and Jiro. I don't want to make it seem like everyone just flat out dislikes him, especially since he's slowly being more social. **

**4\. I put an Easter Egg in here for the comic book fans out there. The first person to get it right in the reviews will get a bit of a prize.**

**5\. Jiro's pretty much the class 1-A liaison in this fic. Do you guys want to see more of her POV? I'll admit that I'm kind of biased seeing as I have a whole other story centered around her, but I just like her character overall. I also have a couple of big scenes that are going to involve her and I want to build up her character a bit. **

**Like always, let me know what you guys think and don't be afraid to leave a review. **


	19. Training Camp: Part 1

The 1-B bus was a flurry of activity. Tsuburaba was more than ecstatic just to be able to go on the class field trip into the mountains with everyone. Rin and Shoda shared his sentiment. Out of everyone in their class, they came the closest to bombing their exams. The only actual failure they had was Monama, and that was due to him being knocked out halfway through the test.

Kendou and Tokage were seated at the front of the bus. This was mostly because they were the class reps. Kendou had paired people up with the person she figured they liked most right now. The only odd pairing was Monama and Bondo. Although, it did keep both of them quiet. So she guessed it was a win for Bondo and a proper place for the class weasel.

Kan was sitting across the lane from them. He was doing his best not to look absolutely bored, but was failing horribly. Suddenly, he tapped the driver's shoulder. "Hey!" The pro stood up and quickly everyone went silent, "How about we stretch our legs a bit?"

"That sounds great! We've been stuck in here for three hours," Tetsutetsu whined.

"It would be relaxing to get out and stretch." Kendou agreed.

"Then it's settled. There's a nice spot up ahead to rest." The white haired man stated before flopping back down into his seat. For some reason, Kendou had a weird feeling about the sudden halt in their journey. But chalked it up to her being trapped in the same seat for hours.

A few minutes later the bus stopped by a cliffside on the side of the road. Instead of filing out in an orderly fashion, the 1-B students all ran out to stretch their legs. Surprisingly, the 1-A bus was already there waiting for them.

"Izuku!" Kendou called out to her green haired friend as they made their way over to him. Unsurprisingly he was standing next to Jiro.

"First name basis, huh? You two sure move fast." Tokage smirked.

"Shut up."

"Hello, Kendou-san, Tokage-san." He greeted the two of them.

It wasn't long before the group migrated over to the nearby railing to get a better view of the area. Everything as far as the eye could see was filled with luscious greenery. There was even a small mountain top that they spotted in the distance.

Just when their conversation was about to shift over to the topic of what happened on Friday, two women wearing cat paws and cute outfits came out of a nearby car parked on the cliff side.

"Hey, Eraser!" The brunette cat girl shouted out.

"Long time no see." Aizawa replied bowing.

"Lock on with these sparkling gazes!" She started their introduction bit. Midoriya's ears perked up at the wording. It took him a second, but he definitely recognized that catch phrase.

"Stunningly cute and catlike!" The blonde cat lady dressed in blue added in.

In tandem they cheered, "Wild, wild Pussycats!" Finishing their introduction with a power rangers pose. Most of the class just looked at them with confusion.

"These are the pro heroes who will be helping us during the summer camp. Meet the Pussycats." Aizawa stated. A grin was slowly but surely showing up on his face.

_'This can't be good.'_ Midoriya thought. He was curious as to why they were conveniently located at a "random" rest stop.

Deciding to fill in any gaps his classmates were sure to have, the quirk inheritor spoke up.

"They're a four person hero team. They're specialty is mountain rescue operations. This will be around their twelfth working yea-" Out of nowhere Pixie Bob lunged over to him and slammed her paw into his face. Her presence was kind of intimidating, despite the fact she was shorter than him.

"We're 18 at heart, child." She shot him a threatening scowl.

"You're 18 at heart..." Midoriya pushed the paw away.

"Everyone say hello to your new instructors." Aizawa groaned out.

Most of the class bowed in unison, "Nice to meet you."

The woman now identified as Mandalay waved her hand to the forest below the cliffs. "We own all the land out here. You'll all be staying in our lodge just over there." She pointed a paw to a building way out on the other side of the tree line.

"Here we go." Midoriya slightly mumbled under his breath, catching the attention of Kendou, Tokage and Jiro. Apparently he was the only one who noticed Pixie-Bob creeping over behind their group.

"If the lodge is all the way over there why did...we... stop here?" Uraraka asked before it dawned on her.

"I think we already know the answer to that, gero." Asui chimed in.

"No way." A now worried Kaibara said, shaking his head.

Sero was next to catch on to their train of thought. "Maybe we should get back to the bus? Like, now."

"Yeah, that sounds like a great idea." Kaminari agreed.

"Its 9:30am right now. If you're fast... maybe you'll get there around noon?" Mandalay added with an evil grin.

The majority of the students began to retreat back to the buses. "No way in hell is that the plan!" Kamakiri shouted in disbelief.

That was the signal for the class to get running. As the horde of hero course students rushed back to their sanctuary, they began shoving each other to beat their impending doom.

"Kitties who don't make it by 12:30 won't get any lunch!" Mandalay announced before Pixie Bob went into action.

Out of nowhere, the ground near the buses erupted and swallowed up nearly the entire class. Fortunately, Midoriya was able to react fast enough and activated his _'Full Cowling'_. Out of instinct he grabbed onto the two people closest to him and jumped up to avoid the mudslide.

When he landed safely back onto the ground, the quirk inheritor was quick to get his bearings. He looked on either side of him and finally got a look at who he managed to pick up. The first person was Kendou, which made sense seeing as she was right in front of him when everyone began running. The other student was...Pony Tsunotori?

* * *

Down below, the rest of the students were picking themselves up out of the dirt. The majority of them more than a bit annoyed at how their day was already going.

"Ugh...my fucking head hurts." Awase groaned out.

"Which one?" Mineta quipped, only to receive another smack to face from Asui's tongue.

"Hey, where's Kendou-san and Pony?" Rin looked around for the two girls.

"Yeah, Midoriya isn't here either." Jiro spoke up after dusting herself off.

"Don't worry about those three, we'll be sure to take good care of them! The only thing you lot should be concerned about is getting through the "Forest of Beasts" in time for lunch!" Pixie-Bob taunted them from the remains of the fallen cliffside.

"The what?!"

As if on cue, a loud rumbling sound came from the treeline only moments before a giant animal-like creature came into view. Leaving the rest of Class 1-A and 1-B asbsolutely stunned.

"You've gotta be kidding me…." Ashido whined.

Almost immediately, Todoroki, Bakugou, Iida and Kamakiri jumped into action and destroyed the dirt creature in a matter of seconds. Although it was definitely impressive to see the boys make quick work of the thing, they had a really bad feeling about what was going to happen next.

"No point in complaining about it now. We need to deal with whatever the heck these guys are about to throw at us."

"Honenuki-san is right, everyone stay on your guard keep your eyes peeled." Yaoyorozu commanded the group.

* * *

_"Thanks Midoriya-san, you're a lifesaver."_ Tsunotori spoke to him in English.

_"Don't mention it, Tsunotori-san."_ He replied.

_"Ugh, why can't we just have a normal week at this school without some crazy shit happening? For Christ's sake, this isn't a damn anime!"_

"Pony-chan, I can't understand you when you start ranting off in English like that." Kendou told her classmate.

"Sorry, almost descending onto dirt just has me big upset."

The three students quickly averted their attention to the two pro heroes who were casually strolling their way over to them.

"Now what to do with the three of you?" Pixie-Bob licked her lips, giving Midoriya a very unnerving look.

"To be honest we expected a few you of you to get out of the way of that rockslide. So congratulations, you win the grand prize!" Mandalay said.

_'Grand prize?'_

"What do you mean grand pri-" Was all Midoriya managed to say before a strong force hit him from behind. Sending him flying a good four meters away.

"Izuku!" The ginger teen shouted.

Kendou and Tsunotori turned their heads to see a tall brown haired man dressed similarly to the other two heroes. The only real difference in his outfit was the black facepaint he was sporting.

"Because you avoided getting swept up in Pixie-Bob's attack, you've proven yourself worthy enough to go a couple of rounds with us!" The guy told him with a crack of the knuckles.

"What?"

"You can't be serious?"

"Oh, yes we are my lovely kittens." Pixie-Bob grinned.

"This will be a good opportunity for you three. Try and learn something from this." Aizawa said to them, looking as unimpressed as ever.

Without any warning, the cat-themed man suddenly moved in front of Midoriya and threw him into the nearby mountain side. The two girls were quick to go to his aid before adopting their own defensive stances. Sizing up the pro heroes before them.

"So, does anybody have any idea what we're up against?"

"Yeah." Midoriya let out after a grunt. "The big one is Tiger. He can stretch and bend his body in all type of ways."

_'His quirk is like dad's then.'_

"Pixie-Bob can manipulate earth, and Mandalay is a telepath."

"Ohohoho, smart, strong, handsome and well informed. Oh you're just my type! I think I found my new plaything~."

Kendou felt a pang of something unfamiliar at the blonde haired woman's words, but quickly let that pass.

"So what's our plan, Midoriya-san?"

"Tsunotori-san will deal with Pixie-Bob, Kendou-san will take on Mandalay. I can take on Tiger, that's our best matchup."

"Fine by me."

With that, Midoriya powered up his _'Full Cowling'_ to eight percent and jumped towards Tiger with his fist reared back ready to knock him down. But just a couple of meters before he could make contact, the electricity surrounding his body vanished moments before receiving a hard right hook to the face.

"Izuku!" Kendou shouted before looking over to Aizawa, who sure enough had activated his quirk. _'This just isn't fair.'_

"That not coo-"

**"HEY YOU TWO, OVER HEAR! WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT?!"** Mandalay's voice resonated inside The two girl's heads.

"Ugh, what the hell?" Tsunotori dropped to a knee, already feeling her headache coming on.

"You okay, Pony-chan?"

"Y-yes."

Just as Kendou activated her quirk, a strong force flanked her from her left side. She looked up to see yet another cat-themed hero. This one had green hair and a yellow outfit.

"Hahaha, you totally weren't expecting that were you?" The woman laughed at her with tears in her eyes.

"And who are you?"

"That's Ragdoll!" Midoriya yelled before receiving a gut punch by Tiger that knocked him onto the ground.

"What's her quirk?"

"It's called _'search'_. She can locate people and learn their weaknesses."

"That's just fantastic."

Deciding that she had enough of this nonsense, Tsunotori launched two of her horns at Aizawa. This was enough to cause him to lose focus on Midoriya and dodge out of the way. Using his capture scarf to swing around on the other end of the railing.

With his quirk now back under his control, Midoriya uped his output to eleven percent and began letting loose a flurry of punches at his opponent. But despite his size, Tiger was shockingly nimble, and his quirk had him moving like water. The pro hero then whipped his torso around a full 180 degrees and slingshotted his fist to Midoriya's face.

"I like your spirit, boy. You're pretty "Plus Ultra"."

"Ragdoll, a little help here?" Mandalay shouted to her partner.

"No problemo." The green haired woman gave a thumbs up before activating her quirk. "The one with the horns is terrible at hand-to-hand combat. The orange haired one is limited to close range attacks. The boy…" She began to trail off once her eyes locked onto Midoriya.

Everyone, Aizawa and Kan included, paused for a second to look at her. What they were met with was certainly not what they expected. In the time it took her quirk to take effect, her cheery disposition immediately shifted into a face that could only be described in one word. Horror.

Midoriya briefly took his eyes off of Tiger and locked his gaze onto Ragdoll who looked like she had seen a ghost. _'If her quirk let's her see people's weaknesses, then that means….'_

Hoping to quickly silence her, he shot his left hand towards the woman and flicked his finger in her direction to get off a low grade "Delaware Smash". But when nothing happened, he realized that Aizawa had erased his quirk again. He didn't have enough time to think before Tiger sent him flying back over to the mountain side.

"Ragdoll, what's wrong?"

"H-his shoulder. A-aim for his right shoulder or his right hip." She stuttered out after taking a quick breath. "He's got a fresh wound on his right hip."

_'Wait what?'_ Kendou wondered only seconds before a wall of dirt sent her flying right next to Midoriya. At the same time, Aizawa used his capture weapon to fling Tsunotori over there as well.

"This is even badder than our exams." Tsunotori moaned.

"Izuku…" Kendou looked to the green haired boy, more specifically at his abdomen. "Are you-"

"I'm fine!" He sharply responded. "Let just worry about these guys for now."

"Okay." She relented. He seemed way more tense all of a sudden.

The three hero course students wasted no time in charging back into the frey.

* * *

Two hours (And one black eye for Midoriya) later, the trio had reached their limits. Tsunotori ended up exhausting all of her horns trying to get the better of Pixie-Bob and Kendou's hands were cramping from overuse of her quirk. Midoriya...quite simply looked like he got hit by a bus. On top of that, all three of them had headaches from Mandalay's non-stop yelling in their brains.

"Man, you youngsters sure have a lot of energy." Tiger complimented them.

"I'll say. I was expecting you three to fold after a few minutes. Good job." Mandalay chimed in.

"Thanks...I guess."

"Now, what do you say we all head back?"

"Huh?"

"You guys won't catch up to the rest of your classmates after this long. Plus, I'm already spread pretty thin trying to keep all of them occupied." Said Pixie-Bob.

"The three of you are you going to help us set up for when they get done. Count yourselves lucky, you get to shower and relax before the rest of them."

"Think of it as a consolation prize for being able to keep us with us."

"How far along are the others?"

"Oh, they're not even close to halfway done."

_'What the hell is going on out there?'_

Without anything else the say, the students, teachers and hero team squeezed themselves into both cars and made their way over to the lodge. Midoriya, Kendou and Tsunotori ended up having to ride with Tiger and Ragdoll. On the way back however, Kendou noticed the weird somewhat uneasy looks the green haired cat lady was giving him in the rearview mirror.

_"So Midoriya, tell me. Are you two an item or what?"_ Tsunotori asked the green haired teen with a bump of the shoulder.

"What?!" He squeaked out. Catching Kendou's curiosity.

_"C'mon man, Setsuna told us that you two have been out on a couple of dates already. What's the deal?"_

_"I don't...dates...there is no "deal" going on."_

_"I'm not so sure about that."_

_"Tsuntori-san, I think you have the wrong impression of what's going on."_

_"So there is something going on~."_ The horned girl wiggled an eyebrow at him. _"I get if you two wanna keep it under wraps, but you should try and be less obvious about it."_

_"Obvious about what?"_

_"Oh I think you already know. But if you ask me, the two of you make a pretty cute couple."_

"Hey, what are you guys talking about?" Kendou asked the two of them. They were speaking English and were talking way too fast for her to understand.

"Nothing! We aren't talking about anything at all!"

"Are you sure?"

"Y-yeah."

"Alright." She shrugged before leaning back into her seat.

_"For the record, Setsuna says that Itsuka totally has the hots for you. I don't blame her though, you are pretty beefy."_

_"Please tell me that every girl in your class isn't like this."_

_"We pretty much are." _The horned girl smiled.

_"Great…."_

Kendou was pretty sure that she heard her name in all of that, but decided to let it slide. Whatever they were talking about was obviously private.

* * *

After their group finally made it to the lodge, the teachers allowed the Kendou, Tsunotori and Midoriya to shower and relax for a little while. The two 1-B girls decided to try out the private hot springs and boy were they glad they did. They managed to stay in there for a good thirty minutes before they were called over to help get dinner ready for the others. When the two of them got dressed and headed over to the kitchen, they finally ran into the Midoriya who looked like he just got done bathing as well. He was wearing black gym shorts and a red shirt with the word "t-shirt" on it. On top of that, his hair was still pretty wet and draped over his face, but still managed to keep its signature curl. Kendou had to admit, it wasn't a bad look for him.

"Man, that soak in the hot springs was just what I needed." Kendou told the boy while setting down a tablecloth on one of the benches.

"Yeah."

"How's your eye doing?" She asked, her expression a bit worried. In the last few hours the bruise was finally starting to set and it was hard to miss. But to be honest that was the least of her concerns. She remembered earlier when Ragdoll said that he had a fresh wound on his hip. And truth be told she was curious as to what happened. But judging by his reaction earlier, he wasn't about to give her any details on it.

"I'm fine. But I'm pretty sure I'll have to walk around with this for the rest of the week." Midoriya placed his hand over the affected area.

"Well that's good to hear."

"Yeah."

"I wonder how long it will take the others to get back."

"Aizawa-sensei said that it should only be a few hours." Midoriya looked to his phone to check the time. Sunset was closing in and they had no idea how far away they were.

"I bet Pixie-Bob is putting them through the wringer."

"I wouldn't doubt it."

"You there, boy. Help me with these boxes." Tiger commanded him after walking into the room with a crate of vegetables in his hands.

"Y-yes sir."

As Kendou went back to loading more bowls with rice, Mandalay suddenly appeared from behind her. Almost startling the ginger teen in the process.

"That Tsunotori girl was right, you two are cute together." The brunette gave Kendou a smirk.

"Huh?"

"Oh I'm just messing with you, kid. Don't mind me."

"Alright…." Kendou shot her a questioning look before returning to her work.

* * *

It was almost sundown by the time the rest of the students made it out of the woods. When Kendou finally got a good look at her classmates she couldn't help but feel bad for them. They all looked like absolute shit, some worse than others. Shiozaki was missing a good chunk of the vines that made up her hair. Bondo's skin looked completely dried out from what she could only assume was overuse of his quirk. And even Tokage somehow managed to lose both of her hands along the way. Kendou was starting to wonder what exactly they had to go through in that forrest.

"Itsuka, Pony, Midoriya-san, I'm so glad to see that you all are safe." Shiozaki gave the three of them a wobbly smile. Even her voice sounded terrible.

"Where the fuck were the three of you at?! Do you know the bullshit we had to go through in there?!" Tokage angrily waved a nub at them while dredging her way over.

"While you guys were dealing with whatever Pixie-Bob had you doing, we were busy fighting the teachers." Kendou told them.

"Seriously? How'd you end up so lucky?" Tetsutetsu asked, barely managing to stand on both feet.

"Judging by the shiner Midoriya has on his eye right now, I don't think "lucky" would be the right word." Jiro interjected.

All Midoriya and Kendou could do was give them a couple of awkwards laughs before the rest of the peanut gallery voiced their feelings.

"What the hell? I thought you guys said it would only take a few hours." Kaibara groaned from his spot on the ground.

"I guess we timed it based on how long it would take _us_." Said Mandalay with not-so-apologetic shrug.

"Now you're bragging about how much better than us you guys are? That's so mean." Everyone could practically see the tears in Mineta's eyes.

"I'm fucking starving."

"Meow~." Pixie-Bob rubbed her hands together. "I thought it would take you all much longer. You lot are just great, especially you four over there." The blonde pointed to Iida, Bakugou, Todoroki and Honenuki as she liked her lips. "I'd call dibs on you boys, but I already have my eyes set on a particular green haired kitty that caught my attention." She motioned over to Midoriya who suddenly adopted a "deer in the headlights" expression.

"Tch." Kendou scoffed. Seriously, did the woman have no shame in preying on minors?

Tokage was quick to notice this and gave her a playful nudge. "Y'know, green isn't really you color."

"There's no point in complaining, so just suck it up and lick your wounds later." Kan spoke up.

"Grab your stuff off the bus and get ready for dinner. After that you can bathe and sleep. You all have an early wake up tomorrow." Aizawa commanded to the hero course students.

"Yes sir…." They all weakly groaned out as they began dragging themselves over to grab their things.

"Wonderboy, carry me." Tokage dropped herself into Midoriya's chest, setting all of her weight on him. Never one to miss an opportunity to have a little fun, especially after losing the last ten hours to fighting giant dirt monsters.

"Huh?" His face immediately lit up in embarrassment, looking around hoping that no one was seeing this. She was way too close.

"I'm too tired to walk. I need a big strong man to take me to my room."

"Setsuna!" Kendou immediately chastised the green haired girl.

"What? You wouldn't have a problem with that, would you Itsuka?" Tokage gave her a toothy grin, expecting an answer.

"Of course I would."

"Oh really, why?"

"I-I...whatever." The ginger teen crossed her arms. Receiving a quick laugh from her friend.

"Tokage-san I-I d-don't think-" Midoriya stuttered out. His face redder than it was a few seconds ago. Kendou couldn't help but think that it made him look like a ripe tomato because of his green hair.

"Less talky, more cary."

An aggravated sigh came out of Kendou's mouth. "Just do it, Izuku. It's best to just roll with it when she gets like this."

"Ugh...fine." Midoriya relented before picking her up bridal style. She was right, it was better to just get it over and done with.

"My hero~." Tokage batted her eyelashes at him. "Hey, you wouldn't mind helping me get dressed too would ya? I'm kind of short handed here." She said with a quick wave of her nubs.

"Setsuna!"

_'Damn you, Midoriya!'_ Mineta scowled at his classmate as he watched him walk off with two pretty girls.

* * *

Later that night after everyone finally managed to eat and take part in the hot springs, the girls of 1-B were all packed inside their assigned room. From what they heard it wasn't as big as the boy's room. But considering the fact that there were only seven of them, they didn't really have a right to complain.

"Man...talk about one hell of a day." Tokage stretched out her arms, more than happy that her hands finally managed to grow back.

"I'll say. My hands still haven't fully recovered from earlier." Kendou agreed.

"I still can't believe you guys had to go up against all of the Pussycats at once. That must've been rough." Said Komori, a short girl with brown hair styled into a bob-cut that covered both of her eyes

"It was."

"Well, at least we now get a chance to unwind before tomorrow."

"Certainly." Shiozaki agreed.

"I wonder what they're going to have us do."

"Whatever it is, it's probably going to be brutal."

"You can count on that. In the meantime, why don't we take our minds off of that and have a little girl talk?" Tokage gave the girls a toothy grin.

"Huh?"

"C'mon, this is the first time that all of us are together like this outside of class. It'll be fun."

"So, what did you want to talk about?"

"Boys, obviously!" The _'lizard tail splitter'_ user proclaimed as she stood up from her futon.

"Here we go…." Kendou deadpanned.

"Oh come on, what's the harm?" Tokage looked around. She'll be damned if she was going to let this opportunity slip away from her. "So, which guys do you think are the hottest?"

"Do we really have to answer that?"

"We already know what Itsuka's answer is." Said Yui Koda, a girl with jet black hair and blue eyes.

"What?"

"C'mon red, we all know you have the hots for Wonderboy."

Kendou couldn't hide the shade of pink that fell onto her cheeks. "I-I don't know what you're talking about."

"Sure you don't."

"The two of them were spending much time close after we got back earlier." Tsunotori was the next to interject.

"Oh really?"

"Pony-chan!"

"See." The horned girl pointed a finger at her class rep, as if that one little outburst proved her right.

"It's okay, Itsuka. There's no shame in being the first one of us to get a man."

"Do you have an 'off' switch?"

"No, but I certainly have an 'on' switch." Tokage shot back with double finger-guns.

"Setsuna!" Shiozaki shouted.

"My bad, geez." She threw up her hands defensively. "Besides, you can't deny that he's totally hot."

"Okay, fine. Izuku is a very attractive guy. Happy?" Kendou admitted, her entire face now a furious shade of red.

"First name, huh?"

"Shut up." She crossed her arms before deflecting the conversation to someone else. "What about you guys? Who do you think is "hot"?"

"I'd have to say either Midoriya, Todoroki or Kaibara." Komori tapped a finger to her chin as she thought about it.

"Bakugou too, but he's a douchebag."

"See, if you don't make your move on him soon, Koko's gonna scoop your man up right out from under your feet." Tokage playfully elbowed Kendou.

"What is wrong with you?" She pushed her away. For a split second though, Kendou did wonder how many of the other girls found him attractive. Sure, he had a pretty plain face, but his build was certainly something to take note of. You'd have to blind not to acknowledge that he certainly cut quite the figure. If you were into that sort of thing...

"Wrong with me? What's wrong with you? You're the one in denial about your crush."

"I _don't_ have a crush."

"Sure you don't."

"Why are you so hung up on this?"

"Because...I want to see you succeed."

"Let me ask you this. Why don't you make a move on him? You had no trouble throwing yourself into his arms earlier." Kendou said as she pointed an accusatory finger at Tokage.

"I only did that to get a rise out of you. I know better than to go after a guy who's already taken. Plus I really was tired."

"Whatever."

"Hey, I'm just sayin'. I don't see what the big deal is, you have a hot guy already lined up. If I were you, I'd jump him the first chance I'd get."

***Thud***

All of the girls abruptly turned around to see Shiozaki now laying on the floor completely unconscious with a hand draped over her forehead.

"Ibara, what happened?!"

"Setsuna's comment was too lewd for her pure heart to handle." Reiko Yanagi whispered. Kendou was absolutely certain that was the most amount of words she's ever heard the white haired girl speak in one sentence. But she pushed that thought to the side.

"Oh god dammit. Can someone go find her bible, please?"

* * *

**Author's Notes: Not really a whole lot to say about this chapter. I always wondered what would happen if some if the students managed to avoid that initial mudslide, and I doubt the Pussycats would just say: "Jump down there and join the rest of your classmates." Plus, I mainly just wanted to deviate from cannon a bit.**

**1\. I don't exactly know the extent of Ragdoll's quirk other than she can know a person's location and weaknesses once she "tags" them. I double checked in the manga, subbed and dubbed versions of the show and it's pretty vague. Let me know if the way I made it in the chapter is a bit of a reach. **

**2\. I've decided that I'm going to extend the events of the training camp by a couple of days just to flesh things out a bit more. But it won't be anything too crazy.**

**3\. What other 1-B students do you guys want to make an appearance? Right now I'm torn between a few of them and I can't decide who I'm going to go with, so I'll just let you guys vote in the comments.**

**-Option A: Monama**

**-Option B: Honenuki**

**-Option C: Kamakiri**

**Like always, thanks for reading and don't be afraid to drop a review. **


	20. Training Camp: Part 2

After years of training to become to latest holder of 'One for All', a habit that Midoriya had begrudgingly developed was waking up at the wee hours of the morning. Normally he would use this time to go for a jog or get in some early morning strength training. But seeing as he was stuck at the training camp and didn't know what kind of hell their teachers were about to put him through, he decided to go out and stretch his legs instead. Just before he managed to tip-toe out of the room past all of his classmates, he checked his phone to see that sunrise was still an hour away.

By the time he made it outside of the lodge, he took the time to take in the early morning view. Overall, the place was absolutely stunning. The trees were a beautiful shade of summer green and the mountain air felt fresh in his lungs. It had been a few years since he'd last been outside of the city and he was grateful to be able to experience something like this.

Deciding not to waste any more time, he immediately began his usual pre-workout stretching routine. He let his mind go blank as he went through the motions, but was quickly snapped out of it when a very chipper female voice broke his concentration.

"Well, you're certainly the early riser." Ragdoll said to him as she made her approach. The green haired heroine still dressed in her cat-themed pajamas.

"R-Ragdoll, what are you doing here?" He stuttered out.

"I've got all of you boys and girls tagged. I noticed you moving about so I came to check up on you."

"Oh...yeah...that makes sense."

"Well, since I already got you out here...the two of us need to have a little chat." She gave him a stern look.

"Oh...yeah…" Midoriya sheepishly scratched his cheek. He was expecting something like this to happen, but was still hoping to avoid it. "So, how much do you uh, know…"

"Enough. One of the benefits of my quirk is that I can detect a person's injuries. And it's easy to tell the difference between ones that are old and _new_. I'm curious about the massive scarring all over your right side, but the "train tracks" you have on your abdomen and hip are a more pressing matter. "

"I see. Look, Ragdoll I-"

The woman placed a hand up to his face to cut him off from speaking. "Don't worry my little kitty. Even though I should, I'm not going to tell Eraserhead or Vlad. For now at least. "

"What? Why?"

"Because even though you're doing _that_, you don't strike me as the "unstable" type. So I doubt I need to worry about you going overboard. Plus, I'd hate for you to have your time here ruined because of it. "

"Thank you." He gave the woman a bow.

"That being said, I'm going to be keeping a close eye on you while you're here. At the first sign of trouble, I'm letting them know. The moment I detect a new injury on you that wasn't the result of training, I'm blowing the whistle."

"I understand."

"Good, now that we have that settled I'm going to have to implement a "no sharp objects policy" for you while you're here. I'll let you use knives during dinner to keep things quiet, but everything else is off limits."

"That's fine." He nodded. The conditions were more than favorable and it wasn't like he was about to argue with.

"Good, I'm going to assume that you brought something here along with you. Am I wrong?" She raised an eyebrow at him.

"No, ma'am."

"Alright, let's head over to your room. I'll need to confiscate whatever you got."

"Okay."

With that, the two of them headed back over to his assigned room. Midoriya quietly navigated his way over to his duffel bag and pulled out a small black box containing the fresh pack of razorblades that he bought before coming out here. For a moment he considered storing a few away someplace else. But he was already pushing his luck and knew that if Ragdoll found out about it, he'd have to deal with way bigger consequences on top of lying to a pro.

"Here." Midoriya handed her the box after quietly exiting the room once again.

"Thank you."

"Why...why are you being so cool about this?" He asked. It was an honest question and he was legitimately confused as to why she was doing this for him.

"I took the time to read up on your student files before you guys showed up. You're an excellent student and you have a lot of potential. I'd hate for this to trip you up. Plus, I had a friend of mine go through something similar."

"I see."

"Yeah. One more thing, does anyone else out here know about this?"

"No."

"Good. Well, that's pretty much it. You should try and get some rest before Eraserhead comes and wakes you guys up. And if you need someone to talk to while you're out here, you can always come to me."

"Yes ma'am."

* * *

When Kan said they were getting up bright and early this morning, he was not kidding. It was barely past sunrise and the students of 1-B were all formed up outside of their lodge. Some lounged in a pile, some were busy catching up on sleep, and the rest were softly talking. Kendou herself had to stifle a yawn as their teacher gave them a quick rundown of how their first day was going to go. Just when he finished explaining that they were going to spend the majority of the week training their quirks, they got a brief look into the hell that they were all in store for.

The first person she noticed was Bakugou, who was plunging his hands into a barrel of boiling water while simultaneously letting off massive explosions. The next was Yaoyorozu, who was stuffing her face with what looked like food pellets while constantly making small items with her quirk. Judging by the nauseous look on the raven haired girl's face, she was not having a good time. Next was Iida, who was sprinting laps around the area at top speed. She was glad to see him back up and running, but from the ridiculous amount of sweat on his skin he was pushing himself to the limit.

Finally, her eyes made their way over to Midoriya. The green haired boy was in the middle of lifting several massive boulders from one end of the clearing to the other. One thing she noticed were the high density weights wrapped around his wrists and ankles. He looked absolutely exhausted already and from the looks of it, wasn't even close to halfway done.

After the class got their introduction to the remaining members of the Wild Pussycats, they went right into it.

For Tokage she had to split her body up into as many pieces as she could and spread herself out as far as possible. Shiozaki was given the task of manipulating as many small objects as she could with each and every one of her vines. Tetsutetsu and Kirishima were sparring nonstop while trying to maintain their transformations.

For Kendou, her drill was its own special kind of hell. The _'big fist'_ user was given the job of doing numerous different tasks with her quirk activated. Everything from lifting, punching, carrying and everything in between. At the most, she could maintain her quirk for a total of ten minutes before having to shrink them back down to avoid cramping. But everytime she broke her concentration, Mandalay would come from out of nowhere and slap her in the back with a rubber paddle. After the first forty-five minutes she was already fed up with it.

It went without saying, but everyone was having a terrible time.

* * *

By the time their first break came around, the first year students at U.A. were already feeling worse for wear. Most of the students were well past their limits by this time, but the promise of having to do more of the same didn't boost their morale in the slightest. Luckily for Midoriya, Tiger allowed him to remove his weights during their scheduled rest.

"Sup." Jiro greeted Midoriya after making her way over to him. Needing to walk around for a bit after spending all morning in the exact same spot.

"Hey."

"So how's your training going? It looks like you're having a worse time than I am."

"Not too bad."

"Aren't those the same weights they had to teachers use during the exams?" She asked as before attempting to inspect the metallic bands herself. What she wasn't expecting was for them to be as heavy as they were. The one she that tried to pick up had to have been at least 27kg. "What the hell?"

"Yeah, they had Hatsume-san calibrate these ones to me specifically. They're designed to handle my quirk at my current maximum output."

"Sucks to suck. I guess I should be lucky that I don't have to deal with that." She laughed.

"How about you, Jiro-san. How's your training going?"

"Pretty awful, my jacks are already sore and apparently I have another few hours of hitting those rocks."

"That sounds…painful."

"It is." She gave a shrug before dropping down next to him on the ground. "So, if you don't mind me asking, what's the deal with you and Kendou? You guys going out or what?"

Midoriya almost choked on what was left of his spit and his face almost caught fire judging by how red he got.

"So...I'll take that as a "no"."

"Why do so many people keep asking me this? We're barely even friends. I get that we hang out a bit, but that's mostly just for training." He let out.

"Well you have to admit, the optics are kind of incriminating."

"You're not wrong I guess."

"But c'mon, I know you're attracted to her. I'm pretty sure I caught you checking her out last week at her house a few times. And your heart rate jumps up every time you start talking to her." The _'earphone jack'_ user's comment earning her a surprised look before pointing to her mutation. "Super hearing, remember?"

Knowing that he was pretty much caught red handed, Midoriya decided not to fight it. "I-I mean, yeah Kendou-san is really pretty and all b-but…ugh…never mind."

"Hey, I get it. Sorry for asking."

"It's fine." He waved off.

Truth be told, lately he was having weird feelings regarding his orange haired friend. The two of them were getting pretty close in his opinion. But he had no real way of gauging what "close" was exactly, on account of never actually having any real friends before. Overall she was just a nice person, so he didn't want to try to read into something that wasn't there. He wasn't going to deny that he found her attractive, but the idea of her even thinking about him in that way was absolutely ludacris in his mind.

Hoping to steer the conversation away from increasingly awkward topic, Jiro took the opportunity to make her own proposition. "Hey, you wanna hang out together for dinner tonight? I'd hate to see you soloing it the entire time we're out here."

"Why?" Midoriya looked to her with confusion.

"Because you're my friend and I'd rather not see you all by yourself this entire trip."

"Really?"

"Yeah, something wrong?" She raised an eyebrow at him.

"It's just…I didn't know you thought of me as a friend." In his mind, he thought the only thing she wanted from him was to be study partners. Nothing more.

"Of course I do. I've been over to your house so I think that makes us pretty good friends."

"Oh…a-alright."

"Now that that's settled, I probably should be heading back over there. Catch you later, dude." The purple haired girl stood up and gave him a quick wave "goodbye" before walking off.

"Yeah." He waved back.

* * *

When dinner time came around, the students were given the oh so lovely task of having to cook their own meals for the night. Most of them were still exhausted from their training. But like Pixie-Bob told them, it was either make their own food or not eat at all.

Admittedly, cooking with the entire class wasn't as bad as Kendou thought. Everyone was doing their fair share and they were making pretty good time. Luckily, Satou from 1-A was apparently a genius when it came to the kitchen so he took the lead on pretty much everything.

It wasn't long before the group of students finally finished their shotty attempt at making curry. Kendou was more than relieved to finally be able to sit down and relax after a long day of training. But just before she could grab her own plate and start digging in, she spotted Midoriya walking off in the direction of the woods.

She hoped that he wasn't running off to eat by himself. Even if they were making progress on him being more social, it was a bit much to expect him to sit down with the entirety of the hero course first years. Deciding that she wasn't going to stand for her friend secluding himself like that, she excused herself from the line and bounded her way over to him.

"Hey Izuku, where are you running off to?" Kendou asked, causing Midoriya to turn around and give her a surprised look.

"I'm taking a plate out to Kota-san." He explained.

"Mandalay's nephew?"

"Yeah, apparently he likes to hang out at this spot at the top of that mountain."

"Really? Do you mind if I join you?"

"N-no, not at all."

"Awesome." She smiled.

With that, the duo began making the journey up to the cliff overlooking the mountain side. It looked to only be about a ten minute walk so it wasn't too out of the way. The two of them didn't really have anything to talk about so they were quiet for most of the trip. That was until Midoriya finally decided to speak up.

"Hey, Kendou-san. Before we see him, I should probably let you know something."

"What is it?"

"I talk to Mandalay yesterday, and she said that Kota-san doesn't like heroes very much."

"Really?" That was weird. Most kids nowadays loved heroes. That should've been especially true seeing as his own aunt was a pretty popular one.

"Yeah. She said he's kind of hostile about it too. I just thought you should know."

"Well thanks for telling me."

* * *

Once the two of them made it up to where Kota was supposed to be, the sound of a tiny stomach grumbling on the other side of the rock wall caught their attention.

"I heard that. You must be hungry." Midoriya was the first to speak up.

"Kota-kun, we brought you some food." Kendou followed.

The black haired boy turned around to look at the two of them before taking a few steps back. "How'd you two find this place?"

"Mandalay told us about your secret hideout."

"Whatever, I'm just fine so you two can just get lost. I don't want to hang out with you losers so just forget about my secret hideout!" He shot back.

Midoriya was right, this kid was pretty hostile. She remembered him running around and helping with the preparations for yesterday, but for the most part he was pretty quiet and stayed out of everyone's way.

"Tch, spending your time trying to improve your quirks. It's dumb." The boy's voice growing ever more irritated. "All you people want to do is show off. You can go now!"

"Your parents were the hero team Water Hose, right?" Midoriya asked him seemingly out of nowhere.

Kota paused for a second before his face went back to its usual scowl. "Did Mandalay tell you?"

"U-uh no, I read about what happened to them a couple of years back. So I kinda just put the pieces together. They were some really good heroes."

"Go away! Everyone here is so stupid. Calling people dumb names like hero and villain, and killing each other becasue of it. If they hadn't been showing off their quirks then they'd still be here. Those idiots."

_'Izuku did say he isn't fond of heroes. But does he hate quirks too?'_ Kendou thought.

"We're done here. You two idiots can just go back to your stupid camp."

"Kota-kun I don-"

"Hey um…" Midoriya interrupted Kendou before she had a chance to try and calm him down. "My friend, this guy I know really well. He didn't inherit either of his parents quirks. It's a hereditary thing and it's really uncommon these days. He admired heroes so much and wanted to be one. But it's almost impossible to become a hero unless you have some kind of quirk. Or at least a good one."

Kendou looked to Midoriya and wondered where he was going with this.

"But still, my friend refused to accept that and prayed for a miracle to happen. He tried to use telekinesis and to breathe fire, but in the end it was no good. Eventually he started hating people who were lucky enough to be born with strong quirks."

In that moment it dawned on the orange haired girl who exactly he was talking about. It was himself. Her mind flashed back to the conversation they had at the ramen stand with Uwabami and Siphon. She had a feeling that Midoriya harbored resentment towards people with powerful quirks. Considering his past and everything that he was saying, it would only make sense.

It was the sad truth of this world. Quirkless people were seen as inferior, less than human. Some would even call them useless. Like…

_'Like a Deku...'_ A moment of clarity struck Kendou like a freight train. But just before her mind could start piecing together certain things, Midoriya started to speak again.

"I guess what I'm trying to say is...there's a lot of different ways to think how quirks work, so I don't think we're on the same page. But if you just reject them completely, it'll make your life harder in so many ways."

"Will you just leave me alone already?! Go away!"

"He's right Izuku, we should get going." Kendou placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Sorry, I kinda have a habit of rambling." Midoriya quickly apologized before setting the plate down on a nearby rock. "Here, I'll just leave the curry. It's not the best, but it's better than nothing."

* * *

"Back there, you were talking about yourself weren't you?" Kendou asked Midoriya while the two were making the trek back down to the training camp. The last few minutes between them were pretty quiet, but that question was lingering on her mind ever since they had left Kota alone.

"Was it really that obvious?" He embarrassingly rubbed the back of his head.

"Kinda. You did say that your quirk developed late and I remember that one time during our internships where you kinda implied that you had something against people with strong quirks."

"Oh...yeah."

"It sucks that you had to go through most of your life thinking you were quirkless. But y'know, I think it's cool that you still wanted to be a hero."

"You think so?"

"Of course." She gave him a warm smile that made his heart rate jump for a split second.

"What can I say? It's always been a dream of mine."

"Well I'm glad you didn't stop trying."

"Huh?" Midoriya gave her a questioning look.

"Yeah, if you gave up on being a hero then we would've never met and became friends."

"I-I guess you're right." Midoriya's face began to flush.

"And I wouldn't have such a great sparring partner either." She gave him a playful elbow.

"Kendou-san-"

"Itsuka." The orange haired teen interrupted him.

"What?"

"Call me, Itsuka. You let me call you by your first name so it's only fair that you call me by mine. You can drop the honorific too."

"A-are you sure?" He looked to her for confirmation. He never called anyone by their first name other than Yagi and Sorahiko. Let alone a friend. Then again he didn't have any friends up until recently.

"Of course I am."

"Alright then...Itsuka."

***Ba-Dump***

Hearing him say her name immediately sent a wave of warmth all over Kendou's body. Sure it sounded the same as when Tokage or Tetsutetsu did it. But for some reason, they way he said it caused a tight feeling in her chest. She couldn't put her finger on it, but it wasn't a bad feeling. In fact, she would even say that it felt good having him call her by her first name. Did she like it when he said it?

"So u-uh...yeah. W-we should probably pick up the pace and hurry back. The others are probably wondering where we ran off to." Kendou sputtered out as she felt the heat rising up in her face, slightly turning away from him to hide herself.

"Right."

* * *

After the two of them rejoined the rest of their class, Kendou asked Midoriya if he wanted to sit with their group. Surprisingly enough, he told her that he was going to eat with Jiro. Although she shrugged it off, she couldn't help but sneak peaks over to his section of the table every now then. Unbeknownst to her, a small smile crept onto her face every time she gazed her eyes upon him.

Much to her surprise, not only was he chatting with Jiro and Tokoyami, but Todoroki as well. Which was weird seeing as up until that moment, she never even saw the two interacting. The two boys didn't outwardly appear to harbor any hostility toward each other, but she was under the impression that they just didn't talk. Just when did they get so buddy-buddy?

"Come with me, the two of us need to talk." Tokage stood up from her seat and grabbed Kendou's arm. Pulling her away from the table.

"Okay…" She looked to her with confusion.

The two of them walked over to the nearby woods, just past the treeline out of view from everyone else. Once they stopped, Tokage faced Kendou with crossed arms and a miffed expression. Giving her a pretty good glare.

"Alright, I know I've been messing with you about this for a while, but now it's starting to get kind of annoying. Why won't you just accept the fact that you have a crush on Wonderboy?"

"Setsuna…." Kendou dragged her hand over her face. She really wasn't in the mood for this right now.

"I don't wanna hear it. It's painfully obvious and it's sad seeing you just dance around it."

"I don't have a crush on Izuku."

"Yes, you do."

"And what makes you so sure?"

"One, you already said that you think he's attractive, but that's just stating the obvious." Tokage raised her hand and detached her index finger. "Two, recently you've been blushing up a storm every time someone brings it up." The middle finger was next. "Three, you're always smiling when you're around him." A third finger followed. "Four, you've gone out of your way to hang out with him quite a bit. And five, you're on a first name basis with him."

"So? I'm on a first name basis with you guys too. It's no big deal."

"Well, me and Ibara are both girls and I know that you're not a lesbian. And metalhead's first and last names are the same so that doesn't really count."

"We're just friends alright."

"You're right, you two _are_ friends. But I can tell that's not where it ends."

"Can we just go back over there with the others please?"

"Look, I'm only trying to help you out here before you miss your chance."

Kendou looked at her for a second. "What do you mean?"

"You didn't hear it from me, but Jiro likes him too."

"Really?" This was certainly news to her.

"Yeah, that day at the mall we ended up chatting before everything went to shit with that "League of Villains" guy, and she flat out told me that she was crushing on him."

"Seriously?"

"Yup, and she plans on asking him out after camp is over."

"Really?" Kendou turned around to where Midoriya and Jiro were eating with Todoroki and Tokoyami. The two of them looked to be chatting about something and Jiro had a smile on her face while twisting one of her jacks in her left hand. Everything about that certainly seemed pretty "flirty" to her.

"W-well, good for her."

"You don't mean that."

"Look…" Kendou let out a sigh, knowing damn well she about to step in very dangerous territory. "Hypothetically, if I were to have feelings for him it wouldn't matter."

"Why not?"

"Because I doubt he'd feel the same way." She subconsciously rubbed her hands together.

"And why is that?"

"It's just...nevermind."

"C'mon man. You're usually so confident and cool about things. What's got you so hung up?"

"Well, Izuku is a good guy and we just started being friends. Wouldn't it be...I don't know, weird?"

"Not at all. You two have pretty good chemistry from what I've seen, and I can tell that he's attracted to you. Honestly it would only make sense."

Kendou paused for a second while she thought about Tokage's words. Objectively speaking, the two of them did have good chemistry. And he was much more talkative with her than anyone as far as she's noticed.

But did that mean that he was attracted to her? Kendou didn't think of herself as particularly good looking. Tokage, Kodai and Ibara all had better selling points in her opinion. She wasn't the most feminie girl in the world and was aware of how people viewed her as the "masculine" type. Did that mean that Midoriya was just into tomboys? Instantly her face heated up at the thought.

She managed to calm herself down and started running the numbers in her head. Was she attracted to Midoriya? Physically, yes.

Personality wise? He was smart, diligent, a kind person despite what the other kids in his class would say, and sort of charming in a weird, socially awkward way. So...yeah.

Did she enjoy spending time around him? Definitely, so far she hadn't experienced a single bad moment when she was with him and always looked forward to their next hangout or sparring session.

The more she thought about it the more her heart rate increased. Was that really it? Did she like all those things about him because she had a crush on him? There was no doubt in her mind that Midoriya would make a great boyfriend. Any girl would be lucky to have him. She couldn't say that the idea of them being together was a bad thing. The pros would certainly outweigh the cons. And if they were both attracted to each other in that way, then it would just be the next logical step...right?

"Okay…" Kendou begrudgingly whispered out.

"Okay, what?"

"I like him…."

* * *

"Hmm."

"What's wrong, Inko?"

"I just had the strangest feeling that my grandchildren are going to have orange hair and green eyes."

"That's weird."

"Yeah...anyways, let's just get back to work."

* * *

"See, was that so hard?" Tokage shot her a satisfied grin.

"Yes, actually."

"Well at least you got the hard part out of the way."

"Congratulations, you got me to admit that I have a crush on Izuku. So what now?"

"Now, all we need is for you to ask him out and we're golden." She said as if it was the simplest thing in the world.

"And how am I supposed to do that? I can't really say anything while we're out here, plus we have no idea if he even remotely feels the same. And if Jiro-chan is going to ask him out after camp that doesn't leave me a very big window."

"If Jiro- oh, don't worry about that. I just made that part up." Tokage waved off nonchalantly.

"What?!" Kendou's face dropped into a deadpan expression.

"Yeah, she doesn't really have a thing for him. I just told you that to fuck with you a bit." The green haired girl giggled.

"I hate you."

"You don't mean that~. But seriously, we have the entire week to come up with a good plan for you to ask him out. In the meantime, we're going to make sure that Wonderboy gets with the program."

"What do you mean?"

"While you're busy putting the moves on him, Jiro's going to be nudging him in the right direction."

"Huh?"

"Oh yeah, she's in on this too. Call it an attack on two fronts."

"Why are you so invested in this?"

"Because, you're my best friend and I want to see you happy. Plus, when this all works out and the two of you are officially together I'll have an endless supply of ammo to tease you with." Tokage said with a devious smile.

"And you wonder why people call you "dirty"."

"Alright, enough jokes. Let's head back out there and finish dinner before everyone starts to worry."

"Fine."

* * *

**Author's Notes: Yay, Kendou finally saw the light. I can't help but think this confession feels weird and kind of rushed, but I'm happy with it. Let me know if you guys hate it or not. **

**1\. I know Ragdoll not blowing the whistle on Midoriya seems kind of irresponsible on her part. Which it definitely is. But for now she has him on a short leash and her quirk will let her know if he has any slip ups. Let's just hope that he doesn't have any during the camp. **

**2\. I always intended for Jiro to be the other person in on the "plan", so I made it so that Tokage convinced her to go along with it while at the mall. I'm a fan of both parties having one person nudge them in the right direction. I'll admit that Midoriya will take a little bit of convincing before the two actually go out (officially), but it definitely won't drag on like you guys probably think. **

**3\. The real fun will begin the chapter after next. Hold on to your hats, because there's going to be a lot happening and I'm gonna try and limit it to only two chapters. **

**4\. We're going to get the Midoriya backstory soon enough (Not all of it, but I'd say a pretty significant portion) once the training camp is over with. I'm still outlining that one so it might take a while to execute the way I want. **

**5\. I know Todoroki's inclusion into the Deku-squad is kind of random. But for this story just assume that their relationship went pretty much the same way as it did in cannon, for the most part at least. I had a hard time trying to find the right place to fit it in, so I ended just deciding to have it happen "off-screen", but we're going to see a bit more of our favorite heterochromatic teen in the upcoming chapters. **

**6\. Do you guys like these frequent chapter updates? Are you fine with me posting every few days or would you rather prefer longer chapters with less upload frequency? I like consistently uploading these, mainly because it's something to occupy my time. **

**Like always, thank you for reading and don't be afraid to drop a review.**


	21. Training Camp: Part 3

To say that Kendou had a terrible night's sleep would be an understatement. The entire night was spent tossing and turning around in her futon while her mind was a whirlwind of thoughts. Okay, she had a crush on Midoriya. That wasn't a big deal. It was perfectly reasonable to develop feelings for a guy friend. Stuff like that happened all the time. Yup, there was absolutely nothing wrong with having a crush on a totally attractive, smart, nice and hardworking boy who was antisocial and hard to read at times….

If it wasn't for the fact that she would wake up everyone else in the room, Kendou would've plunged her head into her pillow and started screaming.

She had a feeling that this was going to be a long day.

* * *

On the other side of the building, Midoriya was in even worse condition.

He had been experiencing nightmares the entire night and barely got any sleep. He knew that the training camp was going to be hard, but he wasn't expecting the added level of stress that he was currently feeling.

The fact that Ragdoll knew about him cutting still did not sit well with him. He wanted to believe that the cat themed heroine would keep her word and not tell anyone else. But in the back of his mind he had this sneaking suspicion that she already told Aizawa what he was doing. Unfortunately, there was nothing that he could do about it. So he would just have to wait and see what happens.

* * *

Morning training came and went for the would be heroes. Like the day before, they had been rigorously training their quirks and pushing themselves to the limit. Everyone was already starting to feel the wear and tear of their non-stop training. However, Midoriya was very noticeably on edge compared to his usual demeanor.

The lack of sleep finally caught up to him and he was feeling marginally worse than he did at the same point yesterday. Even during the few scheduled breaks that they had, he could be seen dragging his feet and looking more downtrotten than usual. Because of this added level of fatigue, he could barely even maintain his output of 'One for All' to nine percent

Jiro had made a few attempts at striking up a conversation with him. But after a couple of unsuccessful tries, she took the hint and just gave him some space. He barely even felt like talking to anyone.

The only relief for Midoriya and everyone else came when their teachers told them to stop training and form up in the clearing after their lunch break.

"Alright kitties, gather around!" Pixie-Bob shouted to the students. "This afternoon, you guys are going to be participating in a little bit of a team building exercise."

"What do you mean?" Asked Kirishima.

"You lot are going to be competing in a nice, friendly race." The blonde haired woman explained.

"A race?" The students asked in unison.

"That's right! The peak of this mountain will be your finish line."

"The rules are simple, your entire team has to be the first ones to reach the summit. Quirk usage is authorized, but do use your best judgment in showing restraint. Anything goes as long as you don't cause any intentional harm to others. Or excessive collateral damage." Mandalay was next to speak.

"There will be ten teams of four. When I pass out these sheets of paper to all of you, whoever has a number matching yours will be your group." Said Tiger.

"What do we get if we win?" Tetsutetsu questioned the cat themed quartet.

"The winning team is exempt from having to do the dishes tonight."

"Sounds good to me!" A few students echoed.

"If there are no further questions, I'll start handing these out."

As Tiger began giving everyone their randomly assigned numbers, Midoriya couldn't help but feel a slight bit of trepidation. He certainly wasn't the luckiest guy in the world, and he secretly hoped that he wouldn't have to be teamed up with Bakugou again. Shortly after the exams were over he learned that the explosion quirk user ended up failing. And needless to say, he blamed him for it. So far he was doing everything could to avoid the ashe blonde, so having to deal with that certainly wouldn't be good for his brain today.

"I guess we're on the same team, huh Midoriya-san?" Uraraka nervously approached the green haired boy, scratching the back of her head while giving him a weak smile. She briefly held up a small tab of paper with the number nine on it.

"Looks like it." Midoriya dryly responded.

Uraraka was a nice girl, even if he had the feeling she did everything she could to avoid him. The two got off to a very rocky start at the beginning of the year. She unknowingly made the mistake of calling him "Deku" on the first day of class and he made it very clear to her to never call him that again. Ever since then, she just stayed out of his way.

"Hey, are you guys on team nine?" A tall, green haired boy with blades on either sides of his mouth asked the two of them.

"Yeah, Kamakiri right?" The brunette asked.

"Yeah."

Before anyone could say another word, a male voice caught their attention. "Uraraka, you're on team nine, right?" Kirishima gave her a quick wave.

"Yup."

"Awesome!"

_'Great, I just had to be in the same group as Bakugou's best friend.'_ Midoriya mentally scoffed.

"It looks like our group is pretty well balanced in terms of offense and defense. What do you think our strategy should be?"

"I'll go on ahead and take down anyone who I come across. You guys just stay close and watch our rear." The quirk inheritor sharply stated. They way he said it was more of a command than a suggestion.

"C'mon Midoriya, that's not a very manly strategy." Kirishima looked to him.

Ever since the start of the year, the hardening quirk user had a feeling that Midoriya didn't like him very much. Sure the guy pretty much blew off everyone. But when it came to him in particular, he always felt an added bit of venom in his voice the few times that he addressed him. He had no clue what it was about, and he tried to be as friendly to him as possible. But no matter what he did, the green haired boy wouldn't budge.

"Yeah, you can't just hog all the fights to yourself!" Kamakiri complained.

"It doesn't matter if it's _manly_ or not. It'll be our most effective strategy and you guys don't have to needlessly burn any energy. I can take care of most everyone by myself anyway."

"Fine dude, you don't have to be so pushy about it. You can just go wild and the rest of us will try and keep up." Kirishima threw up his arms defensively, not wanting to make the situation any more tense than it already was.

"Good."

* * *

After everyone linked up with their respective teams, the hero course students made their way over to their designated starting spots. Each station was located a good five hundred meters away from the next, but everyone began at the base of the mountain. Mandalay, Aizawa, Kan and Ragdoll were all stationed at the top. Mandalay was there to give everyone the announcement and Ragdoll for the purpose of monitoring everyone's location.

**"Alright boys and girls. On your mark, get set, go!"** The brown haired heroine telepathically shouted in everyone's head.

Without a moment's hesitation, Midoriya powered up his _'Full Cowling'_ to nine percent and quickly dashed off up the mountainside. Leaving Kirishima, Uraraka and Kamakiri to their own devices.

"Geez, I thought this was a team event." Kirishima was the first to speak up.

"It's not like he was going to work with us anyway. We might as well just do our best to keep up and not slow him down." Uraraka said with slight groan. She knew the guy wasn't a team player, but she hoped that he wouldn't really abandon them like he just did.

"Let's just hope that he saves a few stragglers for the rest of us." Kamakiri said with an annoyed scowl.

* * *

_~Three minutes later~_

Jiro and her team were moving at a pretty good pace up the mountain. The purple haired girl was teamed up with Iida, Monama and Bondo. Their group was pretty well balanced in terms of fighting ability and they had formulated a pretty good strategy. Jiro would act as lookout by using her quirk to listen out for anyone who approached, while Monama and Bondo set glue traps along the way. Everything was going pretty well until the four of them decided to make a quick stop to scout out anyone else nearby.

"Jiro-san, have you noticed anyone yet?" Iida asked the girl who currently had one of her jacks in a nearby tree root.

"No one's close by right no-"

Jiro abruptly paused when the sound of footsteps about 200 meters away caught her attention. Whoever this person was, they were moving fast, really fast. Only two people that she could think of in their entire class had the ability of moving at such speed. One was Iida, who was standing right next to her. The other...

"Oh shit!"

"What is it?" Monama asked.

"It's Midori-"

***Bam***

***Bam***

***Bam***

Jiro didn't even had the chance to warn her teammates before a blur of green electricity fell upon them. She turned around to see Iida, Bondo and Monama all lying on the ground clutching their stomachs and completely incapacticed.

"Dammit!" She cursed at the sight of the three boys before looking up to see Midoriya giving her a serious glare.

"So...is anyone else close by?" He asked, very well expecting an answer.

All Jiro could do was let out a defeated sigh before pointing over to her left. She knew that she didn't have a snowball's chance in hell in taking Midoriya on in a one-on-one fight. "There's another group about three hundred meters that way."

"Thanks." He gave her a quick nod before dashing off in that direction.

_'What's up with him?'_ She thought as the sight of green electricity disappeared into the trees. She noticed earlier that morning that the boy was in a less talkative mood than usual.

* * *

Meanwhile, on the opposite side of the mountain. The group consisting of Kendou, Yaoyorozu, Shishida and Shoda were navigating themselves through the dense forest.

"I'm surprised we haven't seen anyone else yet." Kendou said as she knocked down yet another tree branch with her quirk.

"It pains me to say this, but it might be for the best. If we can avoid running into other teams then it will be easier to reach the top."

"I am in agreeance with Yaoyorozu-san." Shishida said a few meters back.

"Yeah, especially if we can avoid running into Bakugou-san, Todoroki-san, or Midoriya-san."

"I'm pretty sure we could take either of them if we ran into them." Kendou shot Shoda quick and reassuring smile.

"How can you be so sure?"

"Everyone is still tired from training this morning. And our group is pretty well balanced in terms of fighting strength. I'm sure we'd be able to give even Izuku a run for his money."

"You seem quite amicable with Midoriya-san, Kendou-san. What do you suppose would be our best countermeasure for him?" The beast quirk user asked.

Kendou's face immediately heated up into a slight blush before shaking it off. "I-I don't really know about all that. But if we run into him, we should probably limit his movement as much as we can. The less room he has to jump around, the better our chances are."

"You sure seem to know quite a bit about how he operates, Itsuka-chan." Yaoyorozu quirked an eyebrow at her.

"O-oh well, we just spar together a lot so…." Kendou bashfully rubbed the back of her head.

"Yes, it is a well formulated idea. If we run into him that will be plan of attack."

* * *

"Bakugou! Calm down man, you can't just keep running off like that!" Tsuburaba pleaded to his teammate after going off on his own for the fifth time since they started.

"Shut up, round eyes! You extras just keep look out and try not to fall behind. We're bound to run into shitty Deku at some point!"

"So vulgar." Shiozaki deadpanned.

"You might as well just give up." Satou gave them an apologetic shrug. "Once he's like this there's just no stopping him."

Out of nowhere, a giant wall of ice appeared in front of them and blocked their path.

* * *

Midoriya continued on with his manhunt through the woods. He knew that Jiro wasn't the type to lie, but he found it odd that he hadn't seen anyone else since leaving her and the rest of her team. He elected to stay on the ground instead of moving around through the trees to avoid making any unnecessary noise.

The problem with this exercise was that he had no idea who was teamed up with whom. The only other group that he was aware of besides Jiro's was Tokage, Kaminari, Sero and that black haired girl from 1-B. Even then, he had yet to come up with a good strategy that would help him in taking care of that group. Although he did feel bad for leaving his team behind, he admittedly was using this exercise to blow off some steam.

While he was in the middle of thought, he failed to notice to unstable patch of dirt in front of him before both of his feet began sinking into the ground. By a sheer stroke of luck, he grabbed onto a nearby branch that was close enough for him to reach and pulled himself up to the top of the tree.

_'It must Honenuki-san's doing.'_ He momentarily pondered.

As if on cue, the ashen skinned head of the 1-B student popped out of the ground about fifteen meters in front of him. Midoriya wasted no time in firing off a low powered "Delaware Smash" at him. But, just before his attack could make contact, Honenuki retreated back into the ground. What was even worse was the fact that the softened mud had effectively absorbed the force of the impact.

"What's wrong Midoriya-san? Why don't you come down here?" Honenuki playfully taunted him after exposing himself once again.

"I think we both know that I can't do that, Honenuki-san." Midoriya replied with a bit of a smirk.

"You're right. I guess we're at a bit of a stalemate, huh?"

As much as Midoriya didn't want to admit it, Honenuki was right. In the little bit of what he had seen of the boy's quirk, he knew that out of everyone in their grade he'd have the most difficulty trying to combat his softening ability. Simply put, is was a mismatch for him.

"Looks that way."

"Yeah. You can't come get me because your fighting style requires you to be on hard ground. And as we just saw, your air blasts won't work if I retreat into the mud."

"And there are enough trees around here to where I can just run away the second you activate your quirk." The quirk inheritor retorted.

"So how about we call a truce? I know when to pick and choose my battles and I'm pretty sure the both of us are smart enough to see that neither one has a good enough advantage to make a move. Let's just call it a draw and look the other way for now."

"I'll agree to that."

"Then it's settled. I'm a bit disappointed though. I was hoping to get the chance to test my metal against you. Maybe if the terrain was a little more favorable."

"Maybe some other time."

"Sounds good to me. Y'know, I don't care what those 1-A guys say about you. You seem like a pretty cool guy if you ask me."

"Thank you, Honenuki-san."

"Maybe that's why Kendou-san has a thing for you." Honenuki began laughing.

"I-I u-uh…." Midoriya sputtered momentarily as he face grew into a furious blush.

"Oh man, you're too easy. Anyways, catch you later dude." The lipless teen said with a quick wave before retreated back into the mud. Midoriya watched as the ground returned back to it normal state.

_'That was a close call. I should probably go back and check up on the others.'_

* * *

"Congratulations Team Nine, you guys were the first ones to make it here!" Said Mandalay to the group of students who just arrived to the finish line.

"That was a pretty smart strategy, incapacitating at least one member of the other teams to slow them down." Ragdoll complimented Midoriya.

"Although your group could've done a better job at working as a team. Do you care to explain yourself, Midoriya?" Aizawa gave the boy a stern look while he waited for his explanation.

"It was the most logical course of action sensei."

"And why is that?"

"I have the advantage in speed, power and mobility compared to the others. It wasn't necessary to have my teammates waste their energy when I could scout ahead and subdue as many enemies as possible along the way."

"I see…" Aizawa said with a slight nod. He knew the boy's explanation was just an attempt to avoid getting into any type of trouble. The man could practically smell bullshit coming from a mile away. But he couldn't argue with the results. "I can agree with your reasoning. But do be sure to consider making more of an effort in the future."

"Yes sir." Midoriya bowed.

"Alright, you guys can head over there and relax while we wait for the other teams to finish." Mandalay motioned over to clearing a few meters away.

"Yes ma'am."

The four of them did as they were told and took up residence at the clearing. Midoriya could practically feel the tension from the others, but he just wasn't in the mood to care about it right now.

"Y-you were pretty awesome out there, Midoriya-san." Uraraka said after taking a seat on the ground a fair bit of distance away from him.

"Thank you." He responded, not bothering to look her way.

"I still say you should've left a few people behind for us. We didn't even get to see any action." Kamakiri complained.

"I'll keep that in mind for the future, Kamakiri-san."

"Let's just be glad that we don't have to do the dishes tonight. Thanks to Midoriya we get a little bit of extra rest." Kirishima gave his green haired classmate a thumbs up.

"Oh yeah, you still have to do those late night study sessions with Aizawa-sensei and Kan-sensei, right Kirishima-kun?" Uraraka questioned him.

"Yeah…but hey, Bakugou, Kaminari and Ashido are there so at least it isn't boring."

"Tch." Midoriya gave a subtle scoffed that didn't go unnoticed by the others.

The two 1-A students decided to just let it go instead of making a big deal about it. Whatever his problem was just wasn't worth the effort.

* * *

"I don't think this is such a good idea. He doesn't seem to be in a talkative mood today." Kendou told Tokage as the two of them looked towards Midoriya who was sitting by himself near the trees.

"All the more reason for you to go over there and cheer him up!" Tokage patted her on the shoulders.

"I think we should just give him his space."

"And I think that now is a good time for you to put the moves on him."

"And what the heck is that supposed to mean?" The ginger teen quirked an eyebrow.

"It means, you go over there, cheer him up and flirt a little bit."

"I'm pretty sure I don't even know _how_ to flirt."

"It's easy. Just give him some compliments, wave that side ponytail around and let him get a peek at the goods?"

"What?!"

"I'm just messing with you girl..._mostly_." Tokage chuckled.

"You're having way too much fun with this."

"That I am. Look, if you don't go over there in the next ten seconds then I'm going to show him that picture I took of you in the locker room after your match with Bondo."

"You're joking."

"Am I...am I really?"

"Fine…." Kendou relented with an exasperated sigh. Why in the world was this girl her best friend again? "But later tonight you're deleting it."

"No promises. Now go over there and secure your man class rep!" Tokage said with a not-so-subtle push in the right direction.

As Kendou made her way over to Midoriya, her heart rate began steadily increasing. Theoretically, there shouldn't have been anything to worry about. All she was going to do was have a regular conversation with him. Nothing out of the ordinary, they talk all the time afterall. It wasn't like she was just going to outright say that she liked him. That would've been absolutely insane. She was simply going to have a nice chat with her very attractive friend whom she had a crush on. No big deal right?

"H-hey, Izuku." Kendou uncharacteristically stuttered out.

"Hey." Midoriya looked up to her. Since when were his eyes such a pretty shade of green?

If he was being honest, Midoriya wasn't much in the mood for talking right now. But he knew it would be rude to blow off one of his only two friends. Instead, he just decided to roll with it.

"So uh...I noticed that you were looking kind of down today. Is something wrong?"

"No, I just didn't get a lot of sleep last night."

"Same."

"Sorry to hear that. Why were you having trouble going to bed?"

Kendou's face momentarily heated up at the question. She definitely couldn't tell him that she lost sleep over the fact that she had to come to terms with having a crush on him. Instead of fumbling over her words like an idiot, she quickly thought of a good excuse.

"O-oh, no reason. Some of the girls in our class snore so it's hard to fall asleep with all the excess noise."

_'Genius'_

"Oh, that sucks."

"Yeah…. You were pretty awesome out there today. From what I heard you took out Kaibara-kun and Awase-kun's teams like it nothing. Pony-chan said that you were like a force of nature out there."

"I guess." He said with a slight shrug.

"Hey, do you want to eat dinner together? We haven't had the chance to hang out much since we started training. A-and I kinda want to pick your brain about this move I've been thinking of trying out." Not a total lie, but not the complete truth either. She did want his opinion on a new move that she was working on.

"Y-yeah, sure. I'd like that." He flashed her a smile that in her opinion seemed a bit forced.

"Awesome." She returned the smile.

* * *

_~M-K Ultra Created~_

_~Ibara Shiozaki, Itsuka Kendou and Kyoka Jiro have been added to the chat.~_

T-Rex: What's up guys? It's time for us to put operation: "Get Wonderboy to fall in love with Itsuka" into action.

Fist: What the hell?

Cross: Would anyone care to fill me in? Also, why are you texting us if we're all in the same room?

T-Rex: Because we don't need the others catching wind of our operation just yet.

Cross: Alright?

Microphone: Long story short. We're trying to get Kendou and/or Midoriya to ask each other out since they're both obviously crushing on each other.

T-Rex: And we need to come up with a full proof plan to make it happen.

Cross: Oh my.

Fist: -_-

Fist: Wait. Why did you name the group "M-K Ultra"?

T-Rex: M for Midoriya, K for Kendou, Ultra because we all go to U.A.

T-Rex: Pretty brilliant right? : - D

Microphone: More like pretty cheesy.

Cross: I agree.

T-Rex: Whatever...Anyways back to business. We need to get these two to spend some more time alone together so Itsuka can pull the trigger. Any ideas?

Microphone: Well we don't really have a ton of opportunities besides during dinner.

T-Rex: Good point.

Cross: I do recall Pixie-Bob mentioning that we have another team exercise amongst the classes tomorrow after dinner. Possibly then?

T-Rex: It depends on what it is.

Microphone: Sounds like our best bet.

Fist: You guys are putting way too much thought into this...

T-Rex: Well someone has to.

Fist: We still don't even know if Izuku even remotely likes me.

Microphone: He definitely does, I don't think he'll admit it though.

Cross: Midoriya certainly doesn't strike me as the type to outwardly express his feelings in such a way.

T-Rex: He'll come around once Itsuka confesses her love to him.

Fist: -_-

T-Rex: It's settled then! Tomorrow after dinner will be our chance to give the two lovebirds some alone time. Just try not to get too frisky out there Itsuka. ;-D

T-Rex: What the hell?!

Microphone: Um…?

Cross: Itsuka threw her pillow at Setsuna.

Fist: I'm going to bed.

Microphone: Yeah it's getting pretty late. See you guys in the morning.

T-Rex: I'm keeping this pillow by the way!

* * *

**Author's Notes: A bit of a bridge chapter before everything kicks off. But it still moves the story along, so I'm happy with it. It's too bad Midoriya was having such a shitty day. Sadly, things are going to get bad before they can get better for him.**

**1\. Should Honenuki be Midoriya's "rival" in this story? I think he should. I was brainstorming on how a fight between them would go and it occurred to me that Honenuki might actually have the one quirk that's a prefect counter for anything that Midoriya might be able to do right now in the story. Like I mentioned in their brief exchange, the main deciding factor (In my opinion) would be the terrain for any future confrontations. Plus, I just really like his character and he seems like a pretty chill guy in the manga. Let me know what you guys think.**

**2\. The invasion starts next chapter. Quite a few unexpected things will be happening and I look forward to writing them out. I hope that you guys are ready. And I apologize in advance if it's not up within the next few days. I'm still working out the kinks.**

**3\. For the sake of this fic, Sero passed his exam along with Mineta. I know it's kind of a random change, but it's important for the story.**

**Like always, thanks for reading feel free to leave a review.**


	22. Training Camp: Part 4

The third day of training came and went. After dinner everyone, minus the students who needed to stay back for remedial classes, were gathered around the main training ground. Much to their surprise, their classes were going to be pitted against one another in a "Test of Courage". The rules were pretty simple, use your quirks to scare the other students. It seemed like it was going to be a pretty good time and a nice change of pace from their rigorous schedule.

However, thanks to the odd number of students currently present for class 1-A, that left Midoriya as the odd man out.

"Oh it seems your class has an uneven number of students right now." Mandalay looked to Midoriya.

"I guess so."

"It looks like you'll just have to go through the forest alone." The brunette heroine shrugged.

"Hey, I know! We can just have Itsuka partner up with him." Tokage spoke up just as their class began filing into the forest. Earning a series of curious looks from everyone. "Our class is short one person too, so it only makes sense. Plus it gives us a chance to scare the piss out of our class rep."

Kan rubbed his hand to his chin for a second before giving an approving nod. "That makes sense. Fine then, Kendou, you'll be partnered up with Midoriya. The rest of you get going, be ready in fifteen minutes."

"Yes sir!" The rest of class 1-B echoed.

Tokage gave Kendou a very obvious wink and thumbs up before disappearing into the treeline. Kendou had to admit, the girl knew how to make the most of opportunity. She was both thankful and annoyed at how she was now thrusted into being partnered up with her crush. Which was still weird to think about in and of itself.

"So, it looks like we'll be going through this together, huh Izuku." Kendou said as he walked up besides him.

"Y-yeah." He gave her a weak smile.

"Don't worry, I'm sure it won't be too bad."

* * *

The horrified shreeks coming from the forest in front of them did little assuage their worries. Mdioriya and Kendou were next up and were already making their way down the designated path. So far nothing exciting happened and they hadn't seen another student yet. The forest a whole was eerily silent, minus the random screams coming from a couple of hundred meters ahead of them.

"That sounded like Jiro-chan and Iida-san." Kendou thought out loud.

"I think you're right."

Kendou then said something that was extremely random and out of character for her. "Hey uh...y'know...if you get too scared you can just hold onto me. I-I wouldn't mind." She bashfully whispered, feeling the heat rise up in her face.

"O-oh uh...I-I think I'll be fine." Was his very nervous response.

"Cool…" She shrugged off as aloof as she could at that moment.

_'Stupid, stupid, stupid! What the hell was I thinking? I've been hanging around Setsuna too much.'_

Kendou would be the first to admit that her nerves were starting to get the better of her. Here she was in this dark and scary forest, alone, with a guy that she only recently accepted that she had a crush on. Wearing a pair of shorts that now that she thought about it, might have exposed a little too much leg. In some of her dad's cheesy romance movies, this was the perfect opportunity for her to ask him out. But sadly, this wasn't one of those movies. And she was nowhere near prepared to be in this situation.

What was worse was the fact that she had absolutely no clue if he even remotely liked her in that way. Sure, Jiro had told her that he was interested. But she never even so much as heard him mention any type of attraction to anyone before. As far as she knew, the only thing Midoriya cared about was becoming a hero. Did he even have any interest in dating?

"Hey Itsuka, do you smell that?" Midoriya asked, breaking Kendou out of her mental rambling.

Kendou paused for a moment and sniffed the air around her. "Yeah, it smells like smoke."

"No one in your class has a fire quirk right? The only person I can think of is Todoroki-san."

"No."

A strange feeling suddenly started developing in the pit of Midoriya's stomach. He highly doubted that a few scares from the 1-B students would be enough to warrant Todoroki to lose control of his quirk. And the smell of smoke was getting stronger by the second.

"I have a bad feeling about this. I think we should head back."

"Yeah, I agree." Kendou nodded.

**"Attention, everyone. Villains have invaded the camp!"**

* * *

When the duo made the brief trip back to their starting point, they were met with a sight that they were certainly not expecting. All of the remaining 1-A students were huddled up together behind Tiger and Mandalay. In front of them were two people that they didn't recognize. One was a tall man with brown hair standing over Pixie-Bob with a clothed beam in his hand. The other was a man with a lizard like appearance holding a cartoonishly huge club that looked to be made up of dozens of large knives.

"What's going on?!" Kendou shouted as they made their approach to the rest of the class.

"Kendou-chan, Midoriya-san!" Uraraka turned to them.

"Villains are attacking the camp!" Mineta was next.

"How did they know where to find us?"

"No clue."

"You two join the others and get behind us, now!" Mandalay ordered them, not leaving much room for a debate.

"Let us help you! There's only two of them." One of the students pleaded to the pros.

"There will be no need for that!" Tiger responded.

A moment later the lizard man made a dash towards Mandalay, wildly swinging his weapon at her. Luckily she was able to dodge and knock him to the ground before he reposisition himself.

In that moment, the gears started turning in Midoriya's head. He looked over to the tree line and could see blue flames in the distance. There were more villains than just these two. And one of them appeared to have a fire quirk. Just then, a terrible thought came to mind.

"Mandalay, I think Kota-san still at his hideout!" He abruptly shouted over to her, causing her to look his way.

Just then, the lizard man used that momentary distraction to break her hold and rejoin his partner. The four adults came to a standoff with one another and the tension in the air immediately elevated.

Deciding not to wait for an invitation, Midoriya turned around and powered up his quirk. Because their training earlier in the day, his body was still exhausted. The most he felt that he would be to muster from 'One for All' right now was about six percent. Even then, he would still be fast enough to head over to the cliff in a matter of minutes. Just before he could go off, he felt something grab his wrist.

"Izuku, what are you doing?" Kendou asked him, hoping that her assumption was wrong.

"I'm heading over to the mountain to go get Kota-san."

"What?! No you're not!"

The two students stared each other down for a moment before Midoriya looked over at Mandalay. He knew what he was trying to do was extremely foolish and dangerous. But if there was any chance that Kota was in danger, he needed to move and fast.

"Go!" Mandalay begrudgingly shouted, not risking the chance to take her eyes off of her opponents.

All Midoriya did was give her quick nod and motioned in the direction of the mountain. But once again, Kendou was there to stop him.

"I'm coming with you." She told him. It was a command more so than a request.

"No you're not."

"Yes...I am."

"Fine, hop on." He pointed to his back.

Kendou wasted no time and quickly hopped on. In a flash, the two of them were gone and making a beeline towards the mountain. Midoriya made a point to avoid the areas that the smoke was coming from.

"Can't you go any faster?" Kendou asked. She had seen move much faster plenty of times before and wondered if the added weight was slowing him down.

"I'm still burned out from pushing myself during training earlier. I can only use six percent of 'One for-' I mean my power right now." He told her.

In a matter of minutes, the two of them had made it up to the mountain side. Luckily they hadn't run into anyone along the way.

When they turned the corner, both of them let out a sigh of relief when they locked eyes on Kota. The boy was overlooking the edge of the cliff with a confused expression. In that moment, Kendou decided to get a view of what was going on herself. On the left was a massive wall of blue fire coming from the forest. On the right, was a giant pink cloud of smoke that was right where the rest of her class was supposed to be.

"What's going on?" The black haired boy looked to the two of them.

"Kota-kun, you have to come with us. The camp is being attacked."

"What?!"

"We'll explain on the way. We just need to move."

Kota didn't do anything but nod. But just before the three of them could begin making their way back, a rough and ominous voice caught their attention.

"It seems I have my first encounter for the night." The voice emerged from the shadows out of the cave a few meters away from them. Out step a man dressed in tattered scarves with knives adorning every side of his body. Almost immediately, the hairs on the back of Kendou's neck began to stand on end.

"And who the hell are you?" She shouted.

"The 'Hero Killer'..." Midoriya was the one to respond.

Although he had never seen the man in person, he did enough reading to recognize the description. The red scarf, spiked boots and multitude of knives was enough to let him know what was up. On top of that, his talk with Shigaraki already made him aware that the murderer was working alongside him.

"Tell me, I'm looking for a blue haired boy who escaped my judgment back in Hosu. Where can I locate him?" The villain asked them.

_'He's going after Iida-san?'_

"There's no way we'd sell out a classmate to a guy like you!" Kendou wasted no time in telling him.

"Get behind me." Midoriya stuck his arm out in front of her while lightly pushing her back next to Kota. "We don't know what his quirk is. Itsuka, if something happens I need you get Kota-san out of here. His safety comes first."

_'Prioritizing the safety of the innocent, interesting. If I'm not mistaken, this is the boy that Shigaraki is after.'_ The masked man internalized.

"I got your back, Izuku." Kendou said while activating her quirk.

The night air around them became thick and the tension was almost palpable. Midoriya would be lying if he said that he was confident about this whole situation. On any other day, he could probably just overpower the man standing before him, but today was not that day.

He had no idea what Stain's quirk was, none of the reports from the few survivors gave him any real clue other than speculation that it was some form of paralysis. He could only access about a third of his control over 'One for All'. He needed at least eight percent of his power to be able to use a "Delaware Smash". And to top it all off, he had to make sure that Kendou and Kota would be safe from any of his attacks. He was stuck between a rock and a hard place.

"The moment you see an opportunity, I need you and Kota-san to get out of here." He whispered just loud enough for Kendou to hear him.

"I'm not leaving you alone with this guy, Izuku."

The green haired boy let out a defeated sigh. He wasn't really in the mood for a debate and he had a feeling that she wasn't going to listen to him anyway. Instead of protesting, he refocused his attention back onto Stain. The man crouched into a fighting stance and his hand was on one of his swords. Judging by the fact that he was using bladed weapons, it was a pretty safe bet that his quirk didn't work at a distance.

With one last breath, Midoriya powered up his _'Full Cowling'_ and dashed towards the villain.

Stain was ready for this however and quickly drew his blade and slashed at his direction. But the moment Midoriya came within striking distance, he redirected himself to the left and bounced off the nearby rock wall. Satin barely had enough time to dodge Midoriya's left fist just as the green haired boy went flying over his head.

The 'Hero Killer' then dashed towards him with rather impressive speed and brought his blade down. But Midoriya was able to sidestep him and land a blow to his chest. A loud grunt came from the man only a split second before two small knives came flying towards him. One blade missed, however the second barely grazed his right cheek.

"Izku!"

"I'm good! Just keep Kota safe!"

Midoriya quickly regain himself and made his next move. Using all of his available speed, he dashed straight towards the 'Hero Killer'. As he made his approach, he could see the man's blade coming for him.

_'I have to watch his sword.'_

_'He's trying to get in close so I can't strike him. Smart.'_

Just as the sword was about to make contact, Midoriya got low and ducked in between the man's legs. Stain wasted no time in redirecting his blow. But was momentarily surprised when his blade hit the ground.

_'He's gone?'_ Stain wondered before looking above him to where Midoriya had jumped.

**"6% Detroit Smash!"** Midoriya howled in midair just before landing a powerful left fist on the top of Stain's head.

_'That should've been enough to knock him out.'_ Midoriya thought when he landed back onto the ground. Just then he felt a wave of pressure over his body and suddenly he found himself unable to move. Immediately, he noticed the pinching sensation on his right leg. _'He managed to get me?'_ He wondered before shifting his eyes over the man's blade. He noticed a small trail of blood on the tip of it before the realization hit him. _'My blood.'_

Somehow the 'Hero Killer' managed to retain conscious. The man stood up and started walking over to him. Slightly whipping his sword around in the air. "My partner gave me strict instructions to keep you alive. But you're too much of a threat, so I'm going to have to immobilize you." Stain said as he raised his sword overhead. A wave of fear washed over Midoriya's body as he watched the blade quickly descend.

"Get away from him!" Suddenly from out of nowhere, a strong force flanked Stain just before he could deliver the blow. Knocking him back a good fifteen meters. Although he couldn't turn his head, out of the corner of his eye Midoriya noticed a tuft of orange hair standing next to him. The next thing he felt was Kendou dragging his body backwards.

"Izuku, are you okay?" She carefully set him onto the ground.

"I can't move." He told her while doing his best to manipulate his body. "His quirk...I think it's blood related."

"I saw him licked that sword of his right before you stopped moving."

"You need to get out of here, now!"

"Sorry, but last time I checked, heroes don't abandon people. You just stay back and let me protect you."

_'Another interesting one, huh?'_ Stain internalized as he got back onto his feet. Quickly retrieving his blade from right beside him.

"This fight is a mismatch for you! Your quirk is close range type, you can't let him get near you."

_'I hate to admit it, but he's right.'_ Kendou thought. This was a mismatch for her. From what she just saw, Stain was a very skilled fighter. And if he was tough enough to take one of Midoriya's blows and still retain his consciousness, then there wasn't a whole lot that she could do in that department.

She didn't have enough time to think before the 'Hero Killer' made his next move. The masked assailant charged for her with a level speed that was almost superhuman.

Suddenly an idea popped into her head. One that was very risky, but was sure to buy her enough time to think. "Whether your quirk is a close range type or not, it depends on how you use it." She shouted before expanding both of her hands. The _'big fist'_ user proceeded to violently wave her hands around in front of her. Creating a gust of wind that was strong enough to stop Stain's movements.

_'She's using my idea.'_ Midoriya realized as he watched his classmate blow back the 'Hero Killer'.

Kendou kept this up for the next thirty seconds but she was starting to feel the fatigue set in. Her hands hadn't fully recovered from training earlier and she had no clue if she could keep going with out how much her muscles were already strained.

_'That boy's time is about to be up in a few seconds. The file from Shigarki said that he had O-Type blood.'_ Stain thought while trying to hold his ground. _'I need to hurry up and deal with that girl.'_

Unfortunately for Kendou, she had reached her limit and her hands shrunk back down. Stain took advantage of this opportunity and lunged towards her yet again.

Using every bit of martial arts knowledge that he had gained throughout the years, she prepared herself for the upcoming fight. First was a direct jab aimed for her shoulder, but she managed to side step it in time to grab a hold of Stain's extended arm. She used the momentum to shift around him while simultaneously twisting his wrist, causing him to drop his sword. Stain however was having none of that and used his leg to sweep her feet and knocked her to the ground.

In one swift motion, he pulled out the knife from his left hip and swung his body over to land a blow. But Kendou had enough time to react and rolled out of the way. She didn't have a chance to get back onto her feet before Stain was right on top of her again. The orange haired teen kicked her right leg upwards and managed to land a blow to his abdomen, which made him stumble back for a brief second.

Kendou took advantage of this and stood back up, crouching down into her preferred stance. The two opponents locked eyes for a moment before Stain charged at her once again, this time feinting left and ducking under her jab. Kendou repositioned herself in time to avoid getting sliced in the face and delivered a powerful sideways kick into his chest. But the tip of the blade managed graze her cheek.

When Stain managed to stand back up, the only thing he did was give her a sickening smile before swiping his tongue over the edge of his sword. Instantly Kendou felt a wave of pressure come over body and she found herself unable to move. _'Dammit!'_

"You two are smart but predictable. There are countless false heroes in this world who are all talk. But I think that the two of you are worthy of staying alive. I'll leave the girl to recover, however the boy is coming with me." Stain told them as he made his way over to Midoriya and Kota.

"Kota, you have to run, now!" Midoriya told the black haired boy. At the same time, he felt his left hand move ever so slightly.

Kota was frozen in fear as he watched the villain make his approach. He was panicking and didn't know what to do. These two wannabees just stuck their necks out to keep him safe and now they were both helpless. The tears were starting to flow and his mind was getting foggy. Why did these idiots come up here in the first place? It was just plain stupid. He needed to do something. This 'Hero Killer' guy was quickly approaching and he had no idea what was about to happen.

Out of sheer desperation Kota aimed his hands at the man and shot off a weak stream of water at him. The liquid barely managing to land on his shoulder.

_'Water?'_ Stain paused for a second to look over the liquid. Shrugging it off before turning his gaze back over at the boy. In that moment though, he noticed that the green haired one had disappeared. _'Where did he-'_

**"Texas Smash!"** The boy's voice boomed from right besides him right before landing a blow to the man's face.

Stain recovered just in time to see Midoriya standing in front of him, smiling in his direction.

_'My body is going to hate me for this later but I only need a few seconds.'_ Midoriya lamented before powering up his _'Full Cowling'_ to ten percent. Almost instantly he could feel his muscles constrict in pain but he couldn't worry about that right now. Instead he decided to end this.

With as much strength as he could muster, Midoriya dashed towards the 'Hero Killer' and landed a resounding left punch directly in the mans face. Stain flew back a good seven meters into the nearby rock wall with enough force to knock him out.

"Izuku, you can move?!" Kendou shouted. She still couldn't turn her head but from the sound of that impact, there was little doubt in her mind at what just happened.

"Y-yeah. I think his quirk has a time limit." He grunted as he released his quirk. His muscles were on fire but he put to the back of his mind for the time being. He quickly made his made over to Stain to confirm whether or not the man was unconscious. Thankfully, the villain appeared to be out cold.

"Kota-san, are you okay?" Midoriya ran over to the boy.

"Y-y-yeah."

"Thank goodness." He breathed a sigh of relief.

"Itsuka?"

"I still can't move, but I'm fine. I think his quirk should wear off in a few seconds."

Midoriya immediately made his way over to her next. Overall she was fine aside from the small cut on her left cheek. But considering who they just fought against, she was lucky. The trio waited for about a minute before the orange haired girl regained the ability to move.

"I'm so glad that you're alright."

"Me too. I know you wanted me to get out of here but I wasn't about to let that guy slice you up."

"It's fine. I'm just happy that you and Kota-san are okay."

Kendou and Midoriya told Kota to hang back while they went and checked out the damage. Stain was out cold and not moving. A giant bruise on his face from where the 'One for All' user had punched him.

"Is...is he dead?" Kota asked with a wobbly tone. The boy was still visibly shaken up from the whole affair.

"No, he's just unconscious." Midoriya reassured him.

"Did we really just defeat the 'Hero Killer'?" Kendou looked to Midoriya in total disbelief of what actually just happened.

"Looks like it. From what I've read, he usually sticks to quick attacks in back alleys. I guess we were lucky enough to have him out of his element."

Kendou gave him a nod before turning back around to get a view of the forest. The fire continued raging in the distance and that cloud of pink smoke still hadn't dissipated. Whatever was going on out there was still a problem. "We need to hurry up and get back to camp and let teachers know that he's up here. I doubt he's going to be out for long."

"Yeah." Midoriya agreed.

Just as the three of them were about to move out, the sound of footsteps from around the corner alerted their attention.

Much to their surprise, out came a young looking man with black hair and grey eyes. He was wearing a black long sleeve shirt with black cargo pants. The mystery man was also sporting a bulletproof vest and what looked like a visor over his eyes.

"Well, well, well…." The black haired individual clapped his hands together with a slight chuckle. "You guys actually took out the 'Hero Killer', color me impressed. He told me to hang back and let him handle the two of you. But I guess that was the wrong decision."

"Who are you?" The two hero students said in unison. Getting back into their fighting stances.

"Name's Spectrum, and that's all you kids need to know."

"What are you people after?" Kendou asked.

"Him, actually." The man now identified as Spectrum pointed his finger over to Midoriya. Earning a couple of surprised looks.

"What?"

"Yeah...Shigaraki put out a capture order for you and that Bakugou guy. He said that he had something _special_ planned for you though."

_'They want Bakugou too?'_

"Get behind me." Midoriya put himself in front of Kendou and Kota yet again. His muscles were still in pain and he doubted that he could handle another fight in his condition.

"Not like that will do you any good." Spectrum smirked.

Without warning, the man lifted up his visor and a red light flashed. Since Midoriya was in front of them, Kendou and Kota had their views obstructed of what just happened. Just then, Midoriya dropped to the ground.

"Izuku!" Kendou yelled before she knelt down to her classmate. His eyes were still open but he had a blank expression on his face. "What did you do to him?"

"You'll find out soon enough. It just takes a few seconds for my quirk to kick in." Spectrum told her before placing a hand up to his ear. "Hey, Kurogiri. Stain's out of commission. But I lucked out and found the green haired one, so my job is done. Can I get a pickup?"

A portal of black and purple mist suddenly appeared on the man's right and he wasted no time in making his way over to it.

"Oh, by the way...my quirk is called _'frenzy'_. I'll let you figure out the rest. Good luck." Spectrum said while giving one final wave "goodbye", an evil grin plastered all over his face.

_'What the hell?'_

Before Kendou could figure out what to do next, something unexpected happened. Electricity erupted around Midoriya's body as the boy suddenly stood up. But something wasn't quite right about this. Instead of the usual steady flow of green that she was used to seeing, this was different. The electricity now surrounding him was red and violently arching over him. "Chaotic", was probably the best word to describe it.

What happened next sent a cold chill down Kendou's spine.

"Where's Bakugou?"

* * *

**Author's Note: So...yeah. This happened. Just to let you guys know, that fight with muscular is not going to happen. If you can't already tell, I've decided to go a way different route than that. No spoilers, but hold on to your seats folks.**

**1\. Did you guys enjoy the fight between Izuku, Itsuka and Stain? I wanted to give both of them a moment to shine and I think I accomplished that. I know that I'm not the best at writing out fight scenes, but I hope you guys didn't hate it too much. **

**2\. I've already addressed Izuku's control over 'One for All' in earlier chapters. The more fatigued and worn down his body is, the less of his quirk he's able to use. And after training so much during the camp and not having ample time to recover, he was only able to access a portion of it without putting strain on his body and hurting himself. That will come up in the next chapter as well. Because it wouldn't be a BNHA academia fic without our favorite cinnamon roll grievously wounding himself. **

**3\. I know most of you think that Spectrum is just a plot device. And you're right, he totally is. He'll come up a few more times in the story but don't expect to see a lot of him, or his quirk. For all those wondering, he's based off of the DC character Rainbow Raider. **

**4\. I'm tweaking small things for the next chapter so expect a late update. It's going to get pretty...intense. **

**5\. I wanted to diverge from the cannon quite a bit for this part of the story just to keep things fresh. I don't plan on jumping out the window too much in this fic though. **

**As always, thank you for reading and leave a review and let me know what you guys think. **


	23. Training Camp: Part 5

_'This is bad, this is really bad.'_ Was the thought running through Kendou's mind at the moment. On top of everything that just happened, the last couple of minutes were what really threw her for a loop. Before she even knew what to make of the situation, Midoriya had ran off down the mountainside looking like a man on a mission. And she had a feeling that it certainly wasn't a pleasant one.

The orange haired teen was currently making her way through the woods with Kota on her back. Her feet were moving as fast as they could, but in the back of her mind she knew that making back to the camp was only the beginning of her problems.

There was a pit in her stomach. Not just from their earlier run-in with the 'Hero Killer' and Spectrum, but from what happened to Midoriya. Kendou wouldn't say that she was the smartest girl in the world, but she was smart enough to be able to put the pieces together.

Midoriya was going after Bakugou.

And from the brief flash that she saw of his face, he definitely didn't intend on having a friendly chat. Even in his weakened state, he would still be a problem for anyone that may have been unfortunate enough to cross his path right now. If the situation didn't look bad before, the possibility of a rampaging strength quirk user certainly didn't lighten her mood one bit. What was worse was that she was all alone. If she ran into another villain along the way back to everyone else, she might not be as lucky as earlier.

While Kendou was navigating herself and Kota through the dense vegetation, something caught her attention. She immediately stopped moving her feet and ducked behind the nearest tree, forcing Kota to keep his head down just in case. She listened for a moment to see who it could've been. And it only took a second for her to recognize the noise.

_'Is that an engine?'_ She wondered before the realization hit her. Only one person that she knew of had a quirk that could mimic the sound of a car engine. Without a second thought, she poked her head over to the side and a momentary sense of relief washed over her when she saw Iida rapidly approaching. The class rep of 1-A looked to be carrying Jiro on his back.

"Jiro-chan, Iida-san!" She called out to her two classmates just before the indigo haired boy could pass by her. Making him stop in his tracks.

"Kendou, what are yo- is that Mandalay's nephew?" Jiro asked her once the two locked eyes. Wasting no time in jumping off Iida's back. "What happened? Your face!"

"Me and Izuku got attacked by some villains."

"What?! Are you okay?"

"Where's Midoriya-san?" Iida looked around for his classmate.

"One of the villains used his quirk on him. I think it's some kind of rage inducing power."

"What the hell?"

"Guys I...I think he's going after Bakugou." Was the next thing out of Kendou's mouth. There were more pressing issues at hand.

"What, why?"

"I don't know." Was her response. Although she had a pretty good idea of why he was going after him, now wasn't the time for an explanation of a possible theory. "Iida-san, you need to go find Aizawa-sensei, right now!"

Iida was taken aback for a moment before immediately protesting. "I can't just leave you two-"

"There's no time to argue. Aiawa-sensei's the only one that can stop him." Kendou interrupted him.

The two stared at each other for a second before the indigo haired boy acquiesced. "Fine. Do we know where Bakugou-san is?"

"He should be back at the lodge with the rest of students doing remedial classes."

"Aizawa-sensei's probably there too." Jiro spoke up.

"I'll go there at once." The _'engine'_ quirk user said just before speeding off in the direction of where the lodge was suppose to be.

The air suddenly grew thicker as Jiro and Kendou briefly shared a look with one another. They both didn't like the idea of letting Iida go off alone. But right now he was their only chance to get the word to Aizawa before anything bad happened. Kendou just hoped that he would somehow beat Midoriya over to the lodge.

"We need to head back too." Jiro said.

"Yeah." Kendou nodded before picking Kota up and putting onto her back. "Kota-kun, hold on tight alright."

"O-okay."

The two of them were quickly off to make their own journey back. Kendou would admit that she was a bit disoriented as to where exactly they were. But from the view of area that she got before descending down the mountainside, they shouldn't have been anywhere near the fire or that pink cloud of smoke.

"Just what the hell happened up there?" Jiro looked to Kendou, obviously expecting some kind of answer to what was going on. And why the girl had a fresh cut on her cheek.

"We got cornered by the 'Hero Killer' and had to take him down."

"What?!" Jiro almost fumbled her steps.

"As insane as it sounds, it's the truth. After Izuku knocked him out, some guy named Spectrum showed up and used his quirk on him. He said it was called _'frenzy'_."

"What the fuck…." The purple haired girl let out with a sigh. It was bad enough that they were under attack, but she certainly didn't like the sound of Midoriya getting hit with something called _frenzy_. "Why the hell is he going after Bakugou?"

"Jiro-chan...I think those two have a lot more history than what they're letting on."

As much as the _'earphone jack'_ user wanted to pretend like she didn't have a clue, that wasn't the case. After all she had her own suspicions regarding Midoriya and Bakugou's "relationship", for lack of a better word. When it came to the two of them she knew that something was there. Bakugou was an asshole in general, but whenever someone so much as brought up Midoriya's name in conversation he would instantly fly off the handle. It never really made sense to her.

"Let's just worry about making it back for now."

**"Attention all students! In the name of the pro hero Eraserhead, you have permission to engage in combat!"**

* * *

Back at the lodge, things were only slightly less chaotic. Kan, Aizawa and the remedial students had just been attacked by some guy with a fire quirk. Thankfully the two teachers managed to subdue him before Aizawa ran off to go into the woods in the direction of the training ground.

"Dammit, we should go out there and help out!" Kirishima voiced his opinion.

"You lot aren't going anywhere. You're going to stay right here until we figure out what the situation is." Kan immediately shot back at him.

"This is bullshit!" Bakugou angrily shouted.

"Watch your mouth, boy. I'm not Azaiwa, I'm not going to tolerate your attitude right now."

Before anyone could say another word, the group heard a rattling coming from the nearby bushes. All of them quickly got into their fighting stances and prepared for whatever was about to come out. But much to their own astonishment, instead of some villain the person that walked out was none other than Midoriya. The green haired boy looked to be okay minus a cut on his right shin.

"Midoriya, what are you doing here?" Satou was the first to speak after dropping his guard.

"What's going on out there, dude?" Ashido asked him.

"Are you okay? Your leg is bleeding." Kirishima worriedly said.

"Midoriya, what's the situation right now?" Kan looked to the boy for an answer.

None of them received a response to any of their inquiries. It was only then that they noticed the absolutely infuriated look on the boy's face. Neither of them would typically write Midoriya off as an angry person. Hell, most of them had never seen him with that type of look on his face before.

The boy scanned his eyes over the group for a brief second before locking his gaze onto Bakugou. His eyes widened and his expression changed as an erie smile crept onto his face.

"Why are you here, Deku?!" The explosion quirk shouted.

In the blink of an eye, Midoriya powered up his quirk and dashed right in front of him. Bakugou barely had enough time to throw up his guard before receiving a kick strong enough to send him flying back into the wall of the lodge.

Kan, Satou, Monama, Ashido and Kirishima were all stunned when this happened. Out of everything that was going on, that was definitely on the list of things that they weren't expecting. Something wasn't right. Midoriya may not have been a nice guy in their opinion, but he sure as hell wasn't the type to attack a classmate for no reason. What was even more concerning for the group was the fact that the electricity that was now surrounding his body was red instead of it's usual green.

"Midoriya! What are you doing?" Ashido said to him.

"Don't get in my way." Was the only response that she got as Midoriya calmly walked right past her and the others. The boy's voice was cold and neutral. Much like how he spoke to them at the start of the year.

Bakugou had managed to pick himself up off the ground. And needless to say, he was pissed.

"What the fuck is your problem you damn nerd?!"

"I think you already know the answer to that, _Kacchan_."

"You trying to pick a fight with me Deku?! Fine then, come on you fucking loser!"

Midoriya dashed towards him once again, but this time Bakugou was ready for it. The _'explosion'_ quirk user stuck out his left hand and blasted himself out the way of the oncoming punch. But the second he turned his head to look down at where Midoriya was supposed to be, the green haired nerd was right in front of him.

**"15% Detroit Smash!"** Midoriya howled before connecting a left punch onto his opponent.

Somehow Bakugou managed to once again throw up his guard just before the moment of impact. But from the crunching sensation that felt when the punch landed, he immediately knew that both of his forearms had just been broken. Even worse was the fact that the force of the blow was enough to send him flying back to where the others were still standing.

"You should be grateful that I can't safely access more of my power right now. Otherwise you'd be dead already." The green haired teen taunted with a slight shake of the hand. Midoriya could already feel the pain steadily rising in his wrist from using too much power. But he couldn't care any less about that right now.

"Midoriya what the hell are you doing?" Ashido yelled before running over her to blonde classmate. The second she got a good look at him, she could see the blood already beginning to swell up in his arms.

"I'm getting my payback."

"Come on man, I know that you and Bakugou don't get along but this is nuts." Kirishima stepped in between him and the rest of the group.

"Midoriya, stand down!" Kan ordered him as he sent of wave of blood in his direction. This proved ineffective though as Midoriya somehow maneuvered himself to the right and avoided his attack. The only thing that the blood themed hero saw after that was Midoriya's fist approaching his face. The man was unconscious before he even hit the ground.

"Kan-sensei!"

"A-Ashido you guys take Bakugou and get out of here. I'm going to hold him off."

"What, Kirishima are you crazy?!"

"I'm the only here that can take a hit from him."

"As if! There's no way in hell I'm going to run from that useless fuck." Bakugou let out after a pained grunt.

"There's that ego that we're all used to seeing." Midoriya laughed, getting back into his fighting stance.

"This isn't up for debate. Go, now!"

Satou and Monama wasted no time in picking up the _'explosion'_ quirk user before heading off for the woods. Ashido only took a second to look back before joining them.

Midoriya wasn't going to stand for any of this and dashed towards their group, but Kirishima was just fast enough to block his path while simultaneously activating his hardening. Wrapping his arms around Midoriya's shoulders.

"Midoriya, what's gotten into you man? This isn't like you."

All Midoriya could do was struggle in the boy's arms as he tried to set himself free. "You do realize that you can't hold me like this forever, right? I know your quirk has a ten minute time limit."

"You're right, but at least I can by the others some time."

The two of them struggled to overpower one another for about thirty seconds. But after that, Midoriya decide to just bite the bullet and raise the output of his _'Full Cowling_' to eleven percent. He knew the strain on his body was only going to be further entrenched, but that wasn't about to stop him from dealing with this minor inconvenience. At the most he was only going to need it for a few seconds.

By sheer brute strength he undid the hold that Kirishima had on him and took a second to power back down to six percent. The two boys eyed each other for a moment before Midoriya lunged in front of his red haired classmate and quickly poked his finger into the boy's eye. The sharp rise in pain was enough for Kirishima to break control of his quirk and instinctively reach for his face. And in that moment he received an almost devastating blow to the abdomen that dropped him onto his knees.

"I told you not to get in my way. Now...where did those others run off to?"

* * *

A few hundred meters into the woods, Satou, Monama and Ashido were sprinting through the trees at top speed. They felt terrible for leaving Kirishima behind to deal with Midoriya, but they knew that he was their best bet at buying them some time.

"Put me down jumbo lips! I'm not letting that bastard get away with this!"

"Will you calm the hell down already?! Midoriya-san just broke both of your arms in one punch, can you even use your quirk like that?" A now very annoyed Monama told the _'explosion'_ quirk user.

"It doesn't matter you copycat extra, I can still take his useless ass!"

The three of them let out a set of exasperated sighs. Just then, the sound of movement coming towards their direction halted their getaway. Everyone went on guard and turned their heads to see what was coming, and they were somewhat relieved to see Iida pop out from just beyond the bushes.

"Iida!"

"Ashido-san, Satou-san! Have either of you seen Aizaw- is that Bakugou-san?"

"Dude, something's wrong. Midoriya's completely lost his mind!"

"Damn, I was hoping to get here before he did." The _'engine'_ quirk user clenched his fist.

"What the hell is going on with him?"

"According to Kendou-san, one of the villains used some type of rage quirk on him and he's going after Bakugou-san."

"Damn, this isn't good. He just knocked out Kan-sensei and Kirishima is trying to hold him off."

"Do you know where Aizawa-sensei is?"

"He ran off into the woods a little while ago to go check up on everyone else. I _think_ he was heading in this direction."

"Alright, let's hurry up an-"

"Bakugou!" A familiar and very intimidating voice shouted in the distance, way too close for their liking.

"Shit…" Monama cursed. "Iida-san, take Bakugou-san and get him over to Aizawa-sensei. You're the fastest one of us here."

"Like hell that's going t-" Bakugou's tirade was cut off by Monama giving him a forceful chop to the back of the neck. _'So that's what it feels like, huh?'_

"What about you guys?"

"I'll use Bakugou-san's quirk to hold him off."

"I'm gonna back you up." Satou interjected right before shoving Bakugou into Iida's arms.

"That's insane! None of you ca-"

"Just go Iida!" Ashido pushed the indigo haired teen away.

All Iida could do was click his teeth and turn around while throwing Bakugou over his shoulder and activating his quirk to get away. The rest of the group stood and watched for a brief moment before turning back around to face their oncoming opponent.

"So realistically...what are our chances right now?" A nervous sweat dripped down Satou's face as he glanced over to the two of them.

"Not good."

"Judging from earlier...the only person that he used lethal force on was Bakugou-san. So I highly doubt he'll kill us, if that's any consolation prize." Monama said with a very weak grin.

"Fuck."

There was a momentary calm before the sounds of footsteps in the distance got closer. And sure enough, a blur of red electricity was quickly upon them. Monama was first to act and sent off an explosion at Midoriya, but missed. Satou quickly followed up with an attempt at a right jab but Midoriya dodged out of the way.

Ashido was first in the pecking order as Midoriya wasted no time in punching the pink skinned girl square in the chest. Monama began to let off a blast but stopped himself due to her close proximity. This would prove to costly however as Midoriya lunged towards him and kicked him in the stomach, sending him flying a backwards into a nearby tree. Next was Satou, who despite almost landing a hit to the green haired boy's face, received a strong right fist to the head.

Midoriya took a moment to look over the three of them and much to his chagrin, Bakugou was nowhere in sight. The quirk inheritor then made his way over to Monama who was propped up against the tree but still conscious. The copy quirk user attempted to let off another powerful blast but that attacked was easily dodged. In an instant Midoriya was right of from and grabbed both of the boy's wrists. Twisting them outward and away from him.

"Where is he?" Was the only thing the rampaging 'One for All' user said. His voice was eerily calm and composed which made the hairs on the back of Monama's neck stand on end. The copy quirk user unintentionally shifted his eyes over to the direction where Iida ran off to. Which gave Midoriya the answer that he needed.

* * *

"I think I just heard one of Bakugou's explosions." Jiro said right after the sound of powerful blast caught up to her ears. Her, Kendou and Kota were only a few hundred meters away from the camp and so far they hadn't encountered anybody else along the way.

"That means that either Izuku got to him or a villain did." Kendou responded with an uneasy tone as the two girls made their over to a nearby clearing. They had succeeded in staying clear of the smoke and fire, but the loud booming sounds on the other end of the camp did little to ease her nerves.

"Dammit"

Halfway through the forest opening, the two of them spotted Iida rapidly approaching them with his quirk at full output.

"Iida-san!" Kendou waved her arm in the air.

"Is that Bakugou?" Jiro asked when the indigo haired boy came into the light.

"Run! Get away!"

"What the hell?"

From right behind the two 1-A boys, Kendou spotted Midoriya breaking through the treeline and making a beeline straight for them.

"Izuku?" Kendou whispered out at the sight of him.

She then watched as the boy leapt into the air and reared back his right fist. In the distance she could see the electricity around his body surge with more power than she had ever seen before. Time seemed to stand still as she watched him descend onto their position.

**"100% Detroit Smash!"** The quirk inheritor's voice boomed through the night sky.

Iida barely had half a second to react and move out of the way before a massive shockwave sent everyone flying backwards. The force was enough to separate him from Bakugou midair. When Kendou landed on the ground a good twenty-five meters away from where she was just standing, her mind immediately went to the small boy that she was carrying on her back.

"Kota-kun!"

"I'm okay." The boy let out with a soft moan. By a sheer stroke of luck Kendou managed to land on her side. But, judging from pain shooting up her left shoulder at the moment she definitely sustained an injury.

"Fuck!" Jiro's voice screamed out from a fair distance away from her.

"Jiro-chan!"

"My fucking leg!" The _'earphone jack'_ user screamed out while clutching her right shin.

Kendou took a moment to look up at the direction of the blast and her heart stopped for a moment.

Right where he landed that attack, was Izuku, standing on both feet in the middle of a pretty sizeable crater. His shirt had somehow managed to disappear and even though she was pretty far away, Kendou could see the state that he was in. His right arm looked completely bloodied and mangled from what she could immediately identify. She could even make out a faint trail of blood leaking from his hand.

"I don't want to hurt you Iida-san. Just leave him here and get somewhere safe." Midoriya told the boy while walking towards him. Iida quickly scanned the area around him and could see Bakugou's still unconscious body a couple of meters away.

"Midoriya-san you have to calm yourself down!"

"Izuku!" Kendo started sprinting towards him while clutching her shoulder in the process. Leaving Kota behind.

Once she was within a few meters of him, her body froze.

To say that Midoriya's body was mess would be putting it lightly. On top of the current state that his arm was in, his body was covered in wounds. A lot of them. The first thing she noticed were the three massive scars starting on the right side of his chest and extending out to his shoulder. His trap muscles also had a couple of big lacerations. And his body was littered with what looked like fading burn scars.

But the one thing that sent a shiver down her spine was the right side of his abdomen. There were cuts, dozens of them. Extending from the midpoint of his abs all the way into his waistline and some looked relatively recent. The one thing that set those apart from the rest of his injuries was the fact that they looked clean. Too clean. Every last centimeter of the cuts appeared to be meticulously placed to avoid another.

She knew what those were, she wasn't an idiot. Dozens of clean cuts stacked on top of one another with what looked like practiced precision. There was only one possible explanation.

"You need to stop! L-look at your arm, you're hurt." Kendou shouted at him before her mind could get anymore entrench than what it already was.

"I'll stop once I'm finished with _him_." Midoriya responded, his tone was cold and indifferent. She hadn't heard him speak like that since the first couple of times they talked.

"I get why you'd want to go after Bakugou, but you're not yourself right now."

All Midoriya did was let out an annoyed sigh before turning his attention back over to his target. "I gave you your chance, but I'm ending this. Move out of the way or don't." The boy pointed his left arm over towards Bakugou with his middle finger tucked into his thumb. Jiro, Iida and Kendou could only brace themselves for what was coming next.

**"100% Delaware Sma-"**

The moment he released his finger, something happened. Instead of the powerful gust of wind that everyone had been expecting. What they got was a massive surge of black energy shooting out from the boy's hand.

What looked like a tentacle of the stuff shot only a few centimeters past Kendou's face, forcing her to drop to the ground.

_'What the hell?'_ Were the thoughts of Iida, Kendou, Kota and Jiro as everyone began ducking for cover. Neither of them had ever seen Midoriya do something even remotely close to this before. Whatever the hell was happening right now was something new. _'Is this another quirk?'_

The tendrils of black energy began violently whipping around in every direction and causing havoc. In the treeline, Jiro sucked up the pain that she was currently feeling in her leg and hobbled over to Kota to cover him.

On the other end of the attack, Midoriya was panicking while clutching his left arm. Something was wrong, very wrong. He had no clue what was going on but he had no way of stopping whatever this stuff was. He immediately tried deactivating his quirk but that didn't stop the dark energy from surging all over the place.

"Run!" He hollered with a pained grunt. "I-I can't control this thing. Get away from here!" He continued pleading with the others.

As if things weren't already bad enough, one of the tendrils had latched onto a nearby tree and flung him deeper into the woods. While his body was being dragged on the ground, he was lifted up high into the air and tossed around for a few seconds before crashing back down. However, he was somehow able to retain his consciousness after the impact.

"What the fuck is going on?!" Jiro shouted, hoping that everyone was still alive.

"I don't know!"

"Where's Iida and Bakugou?!"

"We're alive! I have Bakugou-san with me!" Iida's response was heard from Kendou's right.

"Jiro-chan!"

"Kota's fine!"

Meanwhile, Midoriya was doing everything possible to get the darkness under control. With as much energy as he could muster he hooked his legs onto a nearby tree and turned his head to where the others were. "Get out of here!"

"Dammit." Kendou clicked her teeth before retreating further into the trees. Iida wasted no time in flinging Bakugou over his shoulder and activated his engines in both legs. On the way over to Kendou, he grabbed Jiro, who was still hanging onto Kota, by her right arm. Once everyone was a good sixty meters away, they seemed to be outside the range of the attack. The energy was still going wild in the clearing but they seemed to be okay for the moment.

"What the hell is that stuff?"

"I have no clue, has he ever done something like that before?"

"Not that I know of."

"Guys, we need t-"

"What is going on over here?" A tired and lazy from a few meters behind them caught their attention. The three of them turned around to see none other than Aizawa approaching them with Todoroki not too far behind.

"Aizawa-sensei!"

"What are you two doing over here?"

"The two of us just got done putting down one of the villains when we felt that shockwave hit." Todoroki was the one to respond. The heterochromatic teen had a bruise on the non-scarred side of his face, but other than that he looked fine.

"Someone fill me in, _now_." Aizawa ordered. The man had a slurry of questions as to why four of his students along with Mandalay's nephew were huddled behind a tree. And why Bakugou was unconscious with two swollen arms.

"One of the villains hit Izuku with some kind of rage quirk and he started rampaging all over the place. Then out of nowhere _that_ happened." Kendou explained while pointing over to the clearing.

Aizawa and Todoroki turned heads to where a massive surge of energy was seemingly running wild.

"That's Midoriya?" Todoroki looked to the group.

"We don't know what that thing is, but Midoriya is injured right now and that thing won't stop."

"It's just one problem after another today." Aizawa groaned. "Todoroki, as much as I hate to say this, I'm going to need your help. Can you freeze over that clearing long enough for me to use my quirk on Midoriya?"

"It shouldn't be a problem." The half-and-half user nodded.

Without a moment's hesitation, Todoroki sent a massive glacier of ice over into the clearing. His first attempt was thwarted when a few of the tendrils broke through the ice. But they didn't do as much damage as he expected. He then sent another massive wall of ice right beside the previous one, closing off the rest of the clearing.

While he was doing that, Aizawa had sprinted around to the other end to try and see if he could get a good look at his student. He could barely make it out with all of the ice covering the area, but he could see a few of the tendrils breaking their way through. He paused for a moment before yelling at Todoroki to get clear. A few seconds later, Midoriya along with whatever the hell had a hold him came bursting out through the side of the ice wall.

Seeing as this was probably going to be his only chance, the black haired man activated his quirk. Thankfully the dark energy had dissipated almost instantly. However, due to the speed that he was currently traveling at when Aizawa used his quirk, Midoriya's body was flung into a tree. Knocking him out cold.

"Izuku!" Kendou shouted before getting up and running over to him, not caring about the fact that her shoulder was more than likely dislocated. Todoroki was not far behind her.

In a matter of seconds the three of them were standing over Midoriya's unconscious body. Aizawa was noticeably taken aback when he finally got a look at how extensive the boy's injuries were. Kendou knelt down next to him to inspect the damage and almost wanted to vomit at how bad he looked. On top of everything she had seen before, there was now a bruise on his left hand.

"Is he alright?" Iida asked while making his approach.

"Those cuts…" Todoroki muttered out. Kendou looked up to him and tracked his eyes to where he was looking.

"Yeah…" Was all that she could muster up.

"Is anyone else injured?"

"I'm pretty sure that my shoulder is dislocated."

"Kota-san is fine. Jiro-san says that her leg is broken and from what we can tell so are Bakugou-san's forearms." Iida informed his teacher.

"This is a damn mess." Aizawa groaned out. "Todoroki, you're going to carry Jiro, I'll take care of Midoriya. All of us are heading back to the lodge to meet up with Vlad."

"Okay."

Just before either of them could get moving, the sound of Jiro's voice them stopped them.

"Behind you!"

"Huh?" The four of them turned around.

Suddenly, a girl with blonde hair appeared in their vision and whipped a knife in front of Aizawa's face. Out of instinct, everyone jumped back but left Midoriya lying on the ground. Before Todoroki had a chance to use his ice, a wall of blue flames separated them even further from their classmate.

Out of the corner of her eye, Kendou noticed two figures emerging from the woods right from where Jiro was. One of the men was tall with black hair and nasty patchwork skin all over his face, the other was wearing a mask and tophat.

"My, my, we thought it would take you lot _forever_ to bring the boy down." The masked man chuckled while casually tossing a green marble in the air.

"Toga, hurry up grab that one so we can get the hell out of here."

"They have Bakugou!" Jiro shouted out.

"What?!"

"Oh come on Dabi, this is the guy that Shigaraki wanted so badly, right? I'm just trying to see what all the fuss is about." She said before giving the unconscious boy the once over. A black eye, mangled arm, scars, burns, all along with a deliciously chiseled body. She was certainly enjoying the view. Just then, her eyes locked onto a particular set of cuts running along the right side of his abdomen.

"Ahh! And he's just my type!" The girl now identified as Toga began squealing. "Maybe Shigaraki will let me get some playtime with him when him when we get back."

Kendou had no clue what _playtime_ meant, but she definitely did not like the tone that the girl used. Instantly Aizawa was on top of the blonde and used his scarf to try and capture her, but the girl was stunningly nimble and managed to avoid it. Leaping back to where the other two were.

Todoroki tried firing off another wave of ice at the villains, but that was quickly negated by the black haired man's fire.

"You're gonna have to do better than that, Shoto Todoroki." The man now identified as Dabi coolly remarked.

"It appears that we are at a disadvantage at the moment. That man has the ability to erase quirks if I'm not mistaken."

"Yeah, I guess you're right. This is such a bother. We already have one of our targets anyway." The black haired man gave a shrug before placing a hand up to his ear. "Kurogiri, come get us."

Instantly another portal of black mist materialized in front of them. Aizawa activated his quirk, but instead making the portal vanish he undid whatever quirk the masked man had and Bakugou suddenly appeared in front of them. Todoroki thought about launching another attack at them but with Bakugou in such close proximity he couldn't risk it. Aizawa made one last attempt at seizing the three of them but the group vanished into the mist before the portal closed up.

A feeling of dread descended over the teacher and students. Kendou rushed over to Midoriya to check on him while Iida ran over to Jiro and Kota. The orange haired girl had no clue as to why these guys attacked their camp, or why they wanted Midoriya and Bakugou. But one thing was certainly clear in her mind.

They just lost, big time.

* * *

**Author's Notes: Well, this turned out to be a wonderful evening, right?**

**1\. I intended to do this at the start of story, but let's just address Midoriya finally using _'black whip'_. I double checked in the manga, and _'black whip'_ first activated when Midoriya was angry with Monama. So in my mind, it would make sense that it would manifest while he was in berserker mode. I don't plan on it being used a lot throughout the story, but I might change my mind depending on how it's received. I have an entire plan for that, but let me know how you guys might want it to be used. **

** jd3: Your review had me worried that I was going to be too predictable with _'black whip'._ PM me when you get the chance. **

**2\. I didn't feel like writing it out, so let me just tell you guys what happened in other parts of the camp. Tetsutetsu and Rin ended up taking out Mustard. While Aizawa, Todoroki and Tokoyami ended up dealing with Moonfish. Yaoyorozu and Awase still got that tracker on the Nomu. And Ragdoll still got abducted. **

**3\. The next couple of chapters are going to get more intense and we're finally going to get to the Midoriya backstory. Or the first part of it anyways. And we're also going to see the aftermath of what happened.**

**4\. I couldn't mess up both of Midoriya's arms, I just couldn't.**

**Did you guys enjoy this chapter? I've been looking forward to doing this since the beginning of the story so I'm curious as to what your thoughts are on the matter. Did I jump too far out the window? How do you think the rest of the students will handle what went down with our main group?**

**As always, thank you for reading and don't be afraid to leave a review. **


	24. Hospital Visit

Not too long after the villains left, the paramedics and firefighters had finally arrived.

Of the forty students in total, fifteen were unconscious and in serious condition due to the gas. Fourteen others were injured including, Midoriya, Kendou, Jiro, Satou, Monama, Kirishima and Ashido. Ten were unharmed, physically. And one was missing.

One of the six pro heroes that were present during the attack, Pixie-Bob, was in serious condition due to a blow to the head. Vlad King had suffered a concussion and a broken nose. And Ragdoll was missing, but it was apparent that she had lost a lot of blood.

On the villains side, three were caught and arrested. Those individuals being the 'Hero Killer' Stain, an escaped death row inmate by name of Moonfish, and the gas villain Mustard. The others vanished without a trace thanks to warp villain.

The summer training camp that the students were all looking forward to couldn't have been more of a disaster.

* * *

It had been a full three days since the attack on the camp. Needless to say, things quickly became a media circus. News outlets from across the nation were condemning U.A. for not being able to protect their students and allowing one of them to get kidnapped.

After staying that first night in the hospital, Kendou spent the entire first day speaking with an assortment of different police officers, detectives and heroes. She was pretty sure that she had recanted her perspective of things at least ten different times to seven different people. And even though it left a bad taste in her mouth, she spared no detail on what happened. Overall it wasn't too bad, but she'll admit that she did get considerably ticked off when one of the police officers that she sat down with implied that Midoriya could've possibly been working with the 'League of Villains'. Luckily that man's partner reeled him back and apologize for his words.

The second day, she spent cooped up in her home at her parents request. From what she knew, journalists from all over were tracking down U.A. students to get an interview on what happened. She even heard her dad mention that Amajiki, the prominent U.A. student that he is, was cornered at the convenience store a few blocks away from their neighborhood.

In short, things were not looking good for any of them.

* * *

"Well...this all turned out to be a complete and utter disaster." Tokage dragged a hand over her face.

At the moment, her and Kendou were sitting inside of the hospital room that the green haired girl was sharing with Hagakure, Shiozaki and Komori. Kendou was placed in a chair beside her bed. Tokage had only woken up that morning and after receiving a checkup by the attending physician, she was finally cleared to have visitors.

"No kidding."

"And Bakugou was the only one taken?"

"Yeah."

"Shit…" The _'lizard tail splitter'_ user cursed under her breath.

"We were right there too. To be honest...I feel like I could've done more to-"

"Don't go and start blaming yourself. You were injured, and from what you just told me the situation was out of your hands by that point."

"Still." Kendou glanced up at her.

"So how are Wonderboy and the others doing?"

"Jiro-chan's leg was healed up thanks to Recovery Girl, but Izuku is still unconscious. He's done with surgery but we still don't know about his arm right now."

"Damn, well at least he didn't get taken too. Losing one of us is bad enough, but if they managed to get the both of them- actually, I don't even want to think about it."

"Are you sure that you're okay?" The orange haired girl asked with much concern in her voice. She may have been fine for the moment, but there was no way of knowing if there were any lingering effects of being exposed to that gas.

"Yeah, just tired is all. Me and Koko were near the end of the trail so I'm pretty sure that we got the least of that gas. I heard that Tetsutetsu and Rin managed to take out the gas villain before things got too serious."

"Yeah, I heard that too."

"I still can't believe that you and Wonderboy put down the 'Hero Killer'. They should give you some kind of medal for that."

"Honestly...we were lucky to make it out of there alive."

"No kidding…."

There was a brief silence between the two of them before Tokage began yawning and stretching out her arms. Even though she was now awake, she could still feel quite a bit of muscle fatigue.

"You should hurry up there and go see him."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I was gonna take another nap anyways. I'll see you later after you go check on your not-yet-boyfriend."

"You've been awake for like four hours and you're already back to your jokes." Kendou said with a bit of a laugh. Only getting a playful wink in return. "I'll swing by again before I leave."

"No problemo, class rep."

* * *

About ten minutes later, Kendou had made her way up to the next floor to Midoriya's room. She had gotten a few updates from Jiro over the last few days on how he was doing, but this was the first time that she had a chance to see him.

Overall, he looked pretty good. But there were two main concerns that the orange haired girl were having. The first, was the heavy cast on his right arm. He had been rushed into surgery shortly after the medics arrived at the camp and from what she knew it was a success.

The second, was the fact that he was being restrained to the bed by his left arm and both legs. Even though she didn't like it, it made sense. They had no clue of knowing what would happen when he would finally wake up. From what she knew, he had been in and out of conscious of few times. But the longest that he was awake so far was about ten minutes.

Before Kendou's mind was able to wander a bit more over her friend's current condition. The sound of the door opening behind her caught her attention. To her surprise, none other than Rayet Yamanaka rolled into the room, holding a bouquet of yellow and green flowers.

"Oh, Kendou-chan. I didn't know that you were here." The blonde haired girl greeted her with a smile.

"Yeah, I was just checking to see how Izuku was doing." Kendou smiled back. Yamanaka was curious as to the use of the boy's first name from his classmate, but let that little detail slide for the moment.

"I heard from Inko-san that you guys ran into the 'Hero Killer'. Things got pretty rough for you guys out there didn't they?"

"Yeah."

"At least you all are safe."

"All but one of us."

"Oh yeah, I heard one of your classmates did end up getting captured. I'm sorry to hear about that." The wheelchair bound girl placed a hand on her shoulder. "But, from what the news said this morning the police and heroes are doing everything they can to track him down. They'll find him in no time."

"Thanks for trying to cheer me up, Yamanaka-san. But to be honest, I'd feel a lot better once they actually find him."

"I understand."

The two of them let the silence linger for about a minute before Kendou decided to speak up again. There were still a few things on her mind that she needed to talk about. And she had a feeling that the girl sitting next to her would be able to provide some insight.

"Hey, Yamanaka-san."

"Yes?"

"You've known Izuku for a while right? Actually, I'm pretty sure besides Jiro-chan, you've known him the longest."

"Yeah."

"Did you…" She started before a lump suddenly developed in the middle of her throat. Maybe it wasn't the best to just come right out and say what was on her mind. "Have ever noticed anything _off_ about him?"

"What do you mean?" Yamanaka arched an eyebrow in her direction.

"Like...has he ever come off as depressed to you?"

The blonde haired girl raised her head and tapped a finger to her chin in contemplation for a moment. She had a pretty good feeling what the girl was alluding to though. "Well, he's never been the most peppy person in the world. But I can't say for sure. Why?"

Kendou averted her eyes away from her before working up the courage to continue on. "You see...man, this really hard to talk about. Izuku sustained some pretty bad injuries while we were out there."

"Yeah, Inko-san told us that his quirk backfired on him."

"That's true. But, that wasn't the only injury that he had..."

"You saw his cuts didn't you?" Yamanaka just came right out and said it.

Kendou abruptly turned her head towards her with astonishment before recomposing herself. Knowing about it was one thing, but hearing it said out loud was a bit rough.

"You know?"

The blonde haired girl gave her an affirming nod before speaking. "I first noticed it a little while after he started helping us out around the shop. I didn't say anything mainly because I didn't really know how to bring it up. And he did stop shortly after that." She explained. "When he started helping us out again I thought he was done with it. But apparently I was wrong."

"He's been doing it for that long?" That certainly didn't help Kendou's mood one bit. From what Yamanaka was telling her, then that meant he had been doing this for a couple of years.

"I guess so."

"Damn."

An uncomfortable silence descended upon the two teenagers once again.

"Do we have any idea when he's going to wake up?" Yamanaka asked.

"So far as I know, he's been in and out of consciousness."

"I see. Kendou-chan, would you mind setting these flowers on the table for me please?"

"No problem."

"Thanks." Yamanaka said as she handed the bouquet over to Kendou. It was a very lovely arrangement, and the green flowers matched Midoriya's eyes almost perfectly. "I know this might be completely random, but I'm glad to see that you came and visited him."

"Huh?"

"I guess I'm just kind of happy that people care about him enough to see if he's okay. And that he's making friends too."

"I understand. Well you'll be glad to hear that he actually has a few friends. Not just me and Jiro-chan."

"That's wonderful to hear." The blonde haired girl gave her a warm smile before she began making her way over to the door. "Well, I need to get going. My mom and I were on the way to the shop and decided to just drop in. I'll see you around Kendou-chan, swing by some time."

"Yeah no problem. I'll see you around."

* * *

Darkness. Darkness was all that Midoriya could see around him. No light, no sound, nothing other than his own incorporeal form in the vast void that he found himself in. _'What is this?'_ He thought to himself as he gandered at his own appearance once more. He was shrouded in the darkness as well, the only thing that he could see of his own body was the shape of his right arm.

"You've sure done it this time, haven't you kid?" A voice said.

Midoriya quickly rotated himself around, only to meet the gaze of another. It was a man, tall, muscular, with a bald head and dark eyes. Midoriya would even go so far as to say that he looked somewhat intimidating. The man was standing tall with his arms crossed, sporting a disapproving grin.

"I saw what happened once you activated _'blackwhip'_. You should be grateful that you didn't kill anyone." He sighed.

What was he talking about? What is _'blackwhip'_? Who was this man and why was he standing before him? Midoriya paused his thinking. He had a feeling that he knew this guy from somewhere, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. His mind was still hazy but he was almost certain that he had met this guy before.

"Anyways...look, I know you're not able to actually talk since you don't have full control over 'One for All' yet. So just pay attention." He spoke, his voice was strong and commanding in a way. "You've been doing decent up until now but you have to get your mind in check."

What was he talking about? The man was speaking to him with a sense of familiarity. What was even more strange was that he appeared to know about 'One for All'. Just who the hell was he?

"In any case, you have potential that me and the others never could've dreamed of. You're something special kid, I can feel it." A slight smile came to his face, one that seemed a bit familiar. Suddenly the void around him began to disappear, things were getting shaky and the man before him was beginning to fade.

"We don't have a lot of time left so listen up. You may not realize it yet but you're going to get a lot more powerful in the future than you had originally thought. That sudden surge of power that you experienced when you lost control was my quirk, it's called _'blackwhip'_. It's a top grade power and incredibly useful. But it's very reactive to your own emotions. Your anger is what finally caused it to manifest."

The gears began spinning inside of Midoriya's head at the man's words. He used another quirk? That was impossible. There's no way that he could've done something like that. The only quirk he had was 'One for All'.

"I'm not certain, but if you managed to use my quirk then it's a safe bet that at some point you'll be able to use the other user's powers as well. Things are about to get a lot rougher for you in the future, but from what I've seen you should be able to handle it. So please try and keep your emotions under control. But just remember, do your best Izuku Midoriya. _We_ are watching." Was all he could say before completely fading into the darkness.

* * *

Saturday morning, Kendou was on the first train back over to the hospital. She had gotten a text from Jiro about two hours earlier letting her know that Midoriya had finally woken up and gotten out of bed. Thankfully after receiving the all clear from the hospital staff, he had been relieved of his restraints and was allowed to see visitors. She was happy to finally be able to see him for a few reasons, some that she definitely wasn't going to admit out loud. But mainly it was because she just wanted to talk to him and see if he really was okay.

There were so many things that she wanted to ask him. So many things that she needed to know. She wanted to know what happened in his life that forced him to resort to harming himself. Why he harbored such anger towards Bakugou. If he was seeing anybody for his troubles. She wanted to know about his quirk and why that black energy suddenly erupted out of him. She knew that she wouldn't get these answers anytime soon, but that only made her concern for the green haired boy skyrocket even more.

* * *

"What do you mean you're going to go rescue Bakugou?!" Jiro whisper-shouted towards Kirishima.

The two of them, along with Todoroki and Tokoyami were all inside of Midoriya's hospital room huddled around the boy's bed. Midoriya had just gotten back from talking to the police and getting X-rays done on his arm. And by sheer coincidence, Jiro was making her rounds through the building when she saw him being wheeled back to him room. Kirishima also happened to be there for a completely different reason and just followed Todoroki.

"Yaoyorozu managed to put a tracker on one of the villains before she passed out. I'm pretty sure that I can convince her to make another receiver, but I need you guys to back me up on this." The red haired boy tried explaining.

"Do you actually hear what you're saying right now?" Jiro continued chastising him.

"Of course I do."

"I agree with Jiro on this. Doing something like that would be extremely foolish." Tokoyami chimed. The raven headed student was leaning up against a nearby wall next to Todoroki.

"Let's say that you actually somehow convince Momo to go along with this. Do you think that you even stand a chance against those guys once you do find him?"

"That's why I'm telling you guys. If enough of us head over there, we can take them."

"You've lost your mind. I know he's your friend and all, but you need to just let the pros handle this. Going to a villain hideout is a suiced mission."

"Think about it. If we at least have Todoroki, Tokoyami, Yaoyorozu and Midor-"

"And what is _he_ going to be able to do?" Jiro waved her hands over to their green haired classmate, who was still sitting quietly on his bed. Taking extra effort to point the cast on his arm. "Do you even see the state he's in right now?"

"Of course I do. Todoroki, back me up here."

"He's not wrong." The heterochromatic teen simply said.

"You can't be serious?" Jiro looked to him in disbelief.

"You agree with me, right Midoriya? If we have the chance to go get him back than we need to take it!"

Tokoyami used this time to physically put himself in between Jiro and Kirishima just in case either one of them did something they were going to regret later. "Kirishima, I understand where you're coming from. But surely you don't believe that dragging everyone along with you will be enough. Even if Midoriya was at full capacity, it's still too great of a risk."

The three of them stared each other down before Kirishima turned the attention back to Midoriya.

"Look, I know you and Bakugou don't get along. But don't you think we owe it to him to at least try? Especially since you're the one wh-"

"You are _not_ about to try and push the blame for this on him. You do know that he was hit with one of those guy's quirks, right? He wasn't in control of his actions. On top of that, Midoriya is one of the guys that they were after in the first place. You would literally be bringing them the one thing that they want." Jiro was doing her best not to outright shout at the _'hardening'_ quirk user.

Yet another staredown occured between the two of them and the tension in the air instantly became thick. Before either student could get out another word, Midoriya finally broke his silence.

"I'm not going." His voice was low, but his tone was sharp and shaky.

"What, why not?" Kirishima asked with bewilderment.

"You're right, I do feel responsible for Bakugou being kidnapped. But me going will put everyone at risk."

"How?"

"We don't know the possible long term effects of Spectrum's quirk. I might be okay now, but we don't know what might happen if I see Bakugou again. There's a good chance that it could trigger something. Or worse, I run into him again and he uses his quirk on me." Midoriya explained. Tokoyami and Jiro both nodding in agreement.

On top of everything that he had just told them, there was still the possibility that Ragdoll was with him as well. He felt compelled to want to go and try and rescue the green haired heroine, especially after she stuck her neck out for him. But in his heart he knew that it would foolish. Especially in his current condition. He'd be more of a hindrance than a help.

The guilt was eating him up on the inside. If he was more careful, if had just acted quicker, maybe he could've avoided getting hit with Spectrum's quirk. If he hadn't been so careless then so many of his other classmates wouldn't have gotten injured on his behalf.

He had gotten a rundown of what happened by the police that came to his room when he finally woke up earlier that morning. When detective Tsukauchi told him everything that went down back at the camp, he felt a hole forming deep in his soul. All of this was his fault. Things descended into mayhem on his account. If it wasn't for him, Bakugou wouldn't have broken both of his arms and would've been able to defend himself. Monama and Ashido both wouldn't have had to been treated for broken ribs. Satou wouldn't have gotten a concussion. Even Kirishima standing before him wouldn't have been knocked unconscious. So much of what happened fell on him. And because of him, Bakugou was now in the hands of the 'League of Villains', probably suffering at this very moment.

"What's the deal between you two anyway? You and Bakugou have had a problem with each other since the start of the year."

Instead of a response, all Kirishima received from the green haired boy was an uneasy silence.

"Y'know Midoriya...I thought you wanted to be a hero, but I guess I was wrong." The red haired teen practically spat out towards him with a level of venom in his voice. Deciding to use that moment to storm out of the room.

"Kirishima!"

* * *

When Kendou turned the corner after coming out of the elevator on the fourth floor of the hospital, she briefly bumped shoulders with Kirishima of all people. He looked upset, but before she had a chance to speak to him he was already out the door into the stairwell. She decided to shrug it off before making her way over to her destination.

Once she walked in the door to Midoriya's room, she was greeted with the sight of Jiro, Todoroki and Tokoyami all turning towards her. The three of them had tense looks on their faces, but she immediately forgot about that when she laid eyes on Midoriya. He still had the heavy cast on his arm and he looked exhausted. But he was awake, so that was good enough for her.

"Izuku!" Kendou practically shouted as she quickly approached him. If it wasn't for the fact that he was still injured, she would've pulled him into a tight hug.

"H-hey, Ituska." The boy slightly blushed.

"I'm so glad to see that you're finally awake. I was worried sick about you."

"Yeah."

"So...how are you feeling? I was told that your surgery went well."

"I'm fine, mostly. But the doctors told me that I have some pretty serious ligament damage in my arm because I overused my quirk." Midoirya looked down to his injured limb.

"I-it's going to be okay, right?" Her voice briefly grew uneasy. She still had no idea what the extent of his injuries were.

"From what we know, I'll still be able to use it. But...you know what, let's not worry about that right now. How are you?"

She took note that he had cut himself off. Obviously there was something more to it than what he would tell her, but she didn't want to press the topic for the time being. "I'm fine."

"Itsuka, I'm so sorry." The boy looked to her, a few tears starting to well up in his eyes.

"For what?"

"If it wasn't for me, you and Jiro-san wouldn't have gotten hurt."

"Dude, you weren't in control of what you were doing. You don't have anything to apologize for." Jiro told him with a quick wave of the hand.

"She's right. I don't blame you for any of that, if anything I should be thanking you for helping me and Kota-kun."

"Still-"

"Midoriya." The smooth voice of Todoroki interrupted him. The heterochromatic teen had been holding his tongue up until this point, but there was still something that had been eating away at him. "I know you probably don't want me to ask you this, especially right now. But there's something I still need to understand."

"What is it, Todoroki-san?"

"That villain's quirk was called _'frenzy'_, right?"

"Y-yeah." Kendou was the one to respond.

"Some of my father's men are working the case along with the police. That man Spectrum, has a track record of armed robberies in Osaka. From what we know, his quirk causes random fits of rage and anger in people that makes them lash out randomly at whoever is close by."

"What are you getting at?" Kendou looked to him.

"If that's the case, Kendou and Mandalay's nephew should've been the first ones that you attacked. But from what I'm understanding you left them and went straight for Bakugou."

"Todoroki, this isn't the time for this-"

"I know...but none of this is adding up. What compelled you to go straight for him? It's obvious that the two of you don't like each other, but for you to want to attack him and only him is raising some serious questions."

Silence filled the room as all eyes turned back on to Midoriya. Everyone would be lying if they said that they weren't the least bit curious about this themselves. Even Tokoyami had his own questions about the whole situation.

"Todoroki-san, I get that you want answers but that's none of ou-"

"Tokoyami-san, can you lock the door please?" Midoriya cut Kendou off, looking to his raven headed classmate.

Tokoyami shared a quick glance with the boy before acquiescing and sealing off the room. Giving a brief look out the door to check if anyone was about to enter.

"Todoroki-san's right. I owe you all an explanation for what happened. Especially Jiro-san and Itsuka since they were injured because of me."

"That's not true." Jiro told him.

"Yes it is." He shot back only a second before letting out a stressed sigh. "Can all of you promise me that whatever I tell you won't leave this room?"

The four hero course students looked at each other. Allowing a silent agreement to one another to keep their word.

"So what's the deal, Midoriya?" Todoroki broke the silence.

"Izuku…"

"You don't have to tell us anything, Midoriya." Jiro said.

The quirk inheritor looked around the room for a good fifteen seconds as he tried to muster up the strength to get his words out. In truth, he was having second thoughts about what he was about to do. But if it wasn't for him, things would've gone a lot differently and they wouldn't have been in the situation that caused everyone so much grief. He owed it to them to tell the truth.

"To be honest...I don't really know where to begin. I guess I'll just start with telling you guys that I've known Bakugou for a while."

"How long is a while?" Todoroki inquired.

"Ever since we were kids. We even went to school together until a couple of years ago."

"I see."

"At one point the two of us were friends, but that pretty much changed when Bakugou developed his quirk."

Tokoyami was next to speak up. "I'm sorry for interrupting Midoriya, but I fail to see the relevance."

"You know how most people develop their quirks by the time they're four years old?" He asked, his voice growing ever more shakey with each passing word. "Well, that wasn't the case for me."

The four of them gave him a set of confused looks.

"Itsuka's the only one I've told this to so far, but my quirk didn't manifest until about a year and a half-ago."

"Seriously?" Jiro looked to him. This was certainly surprising for all of them. For someone to develop a quirk so late was practically unheard of.

"Yeah, up until then I thought that I was quirkless."

"I see."

"I'm sure that I don't need to tell any of you this, but quirkless people are looked down upon by society. Especially in younger generations."

None of them bothered giving a verbal answer. It was the sad reality of living in a superhuman society. Sure quirkless people made up twenty percent of the world population, but that number was closer to three percent in Japan. Even then, over ninety-five percent of that consisted of the elderly. Todoroki and Tokoyami were pretty certain that they had never met a quirkless person before in their lives. In Jiro's case, the only person that she was aware of was Rayet Yamanaka.

"For most of my life, I was bullied because I didn't have a quirk. Almost every single day at school I would get attacked or beaten up." Midoriya continued.

"The teachers didn't do anything to stop this?" Jiro questioned him, surely the adults had to have known about this.

"It's like I said, people don't have a very high opinion of those born without a quirk, that included the school faculty. More often than not, they would just turn a blind eye to it or just write it off completely. Every time I went to tell them about what was happening, they thought I was just doing it to get some attention or was the one who instigated it. So eventually I just stopped trying."

"Let me guess, Bakugou was one of the kids who were bullying you." Todoroki had a feeling that he knew the answer already, but still wanted the confirmation.

"Yeah. The teachers didn't want him to have any negative remarks that would've hindered him from getting into a top hero school. I'm pretty sure they saw his potential and realized that they could somehow benefit from him making it as a pro. I learned at a pretty early age that as long as you have a strong quirk, people will make every excuse in the book to justify your behavior. And at some point, I started hating people who were lucky enough to have been born with power like that. If we're being honest, I still kind of do. Our school pretty much praised him and told him that he'd a great hero one day. And because of that, they let him get away with whatever he did."

"That's bullshit." Jiro scoffed, folding her arms with indignation

"He wasn't always like that though. Bakugou used to be a nice kid before he got his quirk. But after that he started developing a superiority complex to everyone."

"Sounds about right."

"Even though he had changed I still tried to be his friend. But every time I tried to act even the least bit friendly towards him, he would lash out at me. Bakugou certainly wasn't the only one, but he was the main instigator for most of it. By the time we were in elementary school, everyone started calling me "Deku" because of him."

It always stuck out as odd to them that Bakugou would repeatedly refer to Midoriy by that word. The guy never called anyone by their actual names, he pretty much had some childish nickname for everyone he had come across. But that word was definitely meant as an insult.

"It's a different way of reading my name. But it also means someone who's worthless. Because I didn't have a quirk, everyone just wrote me off as poor little worthless Deku. I tried my best not to let it get to me, but eventually it did. And I started getting depressed. I did what I could to hide it and not look weak to the others. But after years of dealing with that every single day, especially from someone who _was_ my friend at one point, I finally broke."

There was a brief shift in the atmosphere of the room. The air suddenly grew thick and Kendou felt a pit developing in the bottom of her stomach.

"I know that most of you already saw the scars on my abdomen after I blacked out back at the camp." Midoriya looked to the others for confirmation. So far as he knew, the only person who hadn't seen was Tokoyami. "I can't really remember when I started, but it got the point to where I was cutting myself almost every other day. I did well enough to hide it from my mom and the school so they wouldn't do anything to me. And I even got good enough at it to where the wounds would heal up in a matter of days."

Kendou's vision was starting to get blurry as tears began welling up in her eyes. She may have already knew about it, but listening to him admit it was just so much worse. Especially with how extensive the scarring on him was.

"E-eventually...my mom found out about it though. And after one particular incident she learned everything that I had been going through and ended up having me transfer schools."

"Makes sense." Jiro interjected, catching everyone's attention. "Mandalore Middle School had a zero tolernece policy for bullying. A few kids in our grade ended up getting expelled because of it."

"Yeah...after what happened, my mom thought that it would be the best place for me to go to while I recovered. It was a further away than Aldera, but I didn't know anyone there and no one knew that I was quirkless at the time. So it was a better option than me going back to the same place. Or having to deal with Bakugou and everyone else."

"What do you mean by _"While I recovered."_?" Tokoyami almost regretted the question as soon as the words came out of his mouth.

Midoriya paused and looked everyone square in the eyes. His already rapidly beating hard was rising and his throat suddenly became dry. He was sure that if he was still hooked to the monitors then it would've alerted the hospital staff by now.

"Y-you guys are my friends right?" The green haired boy ask after a sigh. The way he framed the question made it sound more like a desperate plea for trust more than anything else.

"Of course." Kendou grabbed his uninjured hand.

"Do you even need to ask?" Said Jiro. Looking to Todoroki and Tokoyami before the two boys gave him their own affirming nods.

"I had a really bad day at school one day. It started out pretty normal, well normal for _me_ at least. But that particular day, Bakugou was in one of his moods and left me in pretty shape. He found out that I was still trying to become a hero even though I didn't have a quirk and wanted me to understand that it was pointless for me to try. To Bakugou, me trying to achieve the same dream as him was an insult to superiority. I'm pretty sure that's the reason why he hated me so much."

"Why am I not surprised?"

"Him and his friends ended up leaving me with some pretty bad bruises and a couple of burns. He even torched one of my hero notebooks. Once they left me alone...I-I pretty much couldn't take it anymore."

That lump in Kendou's stomach had instantly traveled to her throat. There was a feeling of anxiety practically pouring out of her body. '_Oh, please no…'_

"After that, my brain kind of went foggy and I found myself wandering the streets. I can't remember exactly how long I was walking around, but eventually I found myself walking across the bridge not too far from Tatooine station."

_'Izuku, please stop…'_ Kendou's silent plea went unheard.

"While I was there, something in my mind had just clicked. Everything that Bakugou and everyone else had told me was absolutely right. I was quirkless, no one wanted me, I couldn't be a hero, I probably wouldn't even find a job. And no one would've missed me if I had just disappeared. No matter how much I tried to fight it, there was absolutely no chance that I could live a happy life."

That sentence was enough to make Kendou's heart drop. There was so much underlying pain in his words that she almost couldn't stand listening anymore.

"Next thing I knew, my feet just started moving towards the edge of the bridge..."

"I-Izuku, please don't tell me that you-"

"And the last thing I remembered before I hit the ground was just being so happy that I was going to free from all that pain..."

* * *

**Author's Notes: I'm going to be honest. I got really sad after writing this chapter. Even going back and re-reading it blew my mood a few times. I was going to wait and upload this tomorrow, but I was already finished so I though "Why not?".**

**1\. So yeah, Midoriya will not be going on the rescue mission, I have something else planned for what he's going to be doing at that time. Personally, I never liked the fact that Kirishima and Todoroki even asked Midoriya to go along with them in the first place. It was a powerful scene in the show for what it's worth. But to ask someone who had just woken up after being unconscious for a few days on top of still having both of his arms wrapped up to go on a suicide mission was very irresponsible on their part. On top of that, none of the other students even mentioned this or seemed to care about his injuries. They knew that he would accept and would probably come up with good plan, but it was still a bad judgment call on their part. But let me get off my soapbox.**

**2\. Next chapter, Izuku Midoriya, The Origin: Part 1. That part will be before he met All Might, I have something interesting planned for that part of the story.**

**3\. After next chapter, the mood is going to pick up quite a bit. I honestly just want to be done with the sad part of this story and get to the fun.**

**4\. How do you think the others will react to this? Was telling them a good call on Midoriya's part? I had a different idea on how he was going to tell them, but I settled with this. In Midoriya's mind, he owed them an explanation on why he felt compelled to go after Bakugou. **

**As always, thanks for reading and don't be afraid to leave a review. And sorry if this chapter made you sad.**


	25. Izuku Midoriya, The Origin: Part 1

The tears hit the ground as Izuku Midoriya toed his way over to the edge of the bridge. His hair stung his average eyes like tiny needles as they flicked droplets in every direction. The setting sun was still hot on his freckle infested face and he breathed deeply, selfishly wasting just a little bit more air. There was a never-ending stinging sensation on the left side of his ribcage thanks to the fresh burn wound he sustained from Bakugou about thirty minutes ago. And he could already feel a new bruise forming on his left arm.

There was so much that he wanted to say in that moment. To his mother, he wanted to tell her to keep living the full and wonderful life that he had stopped her from living. He silently apologised for having to leave so soon, but he just couldn't take the tears anymore.

He was tired. Bone deep, hollow chested tired. He had been tired all his life. Tired of the name calling, the bruises, the pitying stares, the hopeless dreams, the sleepless nights, his mother's apologies and the tears. He was tired of being quirkless. Of being broken since birth. He just wanted it all to stop. He _needed_ it all to stop.

_'If you think you'll have a quirk in your next life...go take a swan dive off the roof! You quirkless freak!.'_

So like the obedient follower that he was always meant to be, he had followed his classmate's instructions. He wavered slightly as he looked over the edge of the railing. Searching for the best spot to reach his destination.

The smile on his lips hurt his cheeks. A smile in the face of the despair that was his meaningless existence. He wouldn't let All Might down like he had let down everyone else, not even in his last moments.

As he went to look up at the city skyline one last time, the smile slipped from his face. The world began to tilt dangerously, the earth groaning in protest as the air rushed his face even from so high up. Suddenly, his stomach shot up to his head. The world began to blur around him and the solid pressure of the ground underneath his feet was gone.

Oh...

He already let go...

He wanted to laugh, or scream, or cry at just how pathetic he truly was. Out of habit, out of damned habit he had begun to dream of becoming a hero.

He wanted to catch a glimpse of just maybe one last moment. He remembered that he still had his newly charred notebook on him. His last one, the one that he was falling headfirst towards the ground with still in his backpack. It was the world's last joke for the world's most pathetic human being alive. But not for long. Finally, he was going to be free of all his suffering.

He hit the pavement with a tear jerking crack that ran through his entire body. Ice pulsated through his weak veins in waves. He tried to swallow down air instinctually but all that he tasted was dust. There was a hand gripping at his throat and hammers beating at his arm. His legs were numb. Someone was sitting on his spine. There were creatures tearing up his insides. He was wet and sticky, he couldn't breathe, he couldn't see and he couldn't hear anything but a ringing bell in the distance. He wanted his mother. He needed her. Something was wrong.

He really did jumped.

* * *

"Another successful day, if I do say so myself." A young, brown haired man smiled as he stretched out his arms above his head.

"Just be glad that we outran those cops before we got caught." A girl with pink hair and blue eyes told him with a scowl.

"Yeah...but hey, at least we got away cleanly, right?"

"Whatever."

"We should probably lay low and keep away from the streets for the time being." A young man with black hair told his two partners.

"You're right. Why don't we duck under that bridge over there? If I remember correctly, the tunnel leads to a train station on the other side. We can blend in." The brown haired one suggested.

"Good idea."

"Ugh...I hate sewers. They smell terrible." The pink haired girl groaned with obvious disgust.

"Stop complaining."

The young trio were quick to descend onto the platform next to the bridge. They had made a clean getaway and were about to head home for some much needed rest and relaxation. Although the tunnel did smell horrible, it wasn't going to be a long journey. As per their usual evening outings, it looked like the rest of their night was going to be relatively chill. Or so they thought.

"What the hell?" The brown haired man paused as he looked off into the distance near the edge of the tunnel.

"What is it?" The pink haired girl looked to him.

"I think...hey, someone's on the ground over there!"

"Oh shit!"

The trio were quick to run over to the person to see if they were okay. Something didn't feel right. Why was someone sleeping on the ground next to a tunnel? There was a homeless shelter barely two blocks away.

"What the fuck?!"

"It's a kid?" The black haired man said in a low tone, noting the school uniform that the boy was wearing.

"What is he-" The girl looked around before upturning her gaze.

"Hey! Hey, kid! Can you hear me!" The brown haired man was about to shake the boy to see if he was okay before the sight of dried red liquid stopped his hand.

"Oh my god!" The girl shrieked once her eyes caught sight of it.

"Quick, one of you call an ambulance!" The young man shouted.

"I-I'm on it!" The black haired man gave a nod before pulling out his phone.

"Hey kid, come on stay with me!"

"Shit! What do we do? He's lost so much blood!"

"I don't know, but we need to do something!"

A few seconds later the voice of the black haired man caught their attention. "I got through, the ambulance is on its way."

* * *

It was already the next day by the time he regained consciousness. And the first thing that he saw was his mother, Inko, worrying over his newly mangled body with an intensity that could only be found in a Midoriya.

She told him about his injuries.

A few broken ribs, a broken leg and a fracture in his skull. The worse was his right arm though. Evidently, before he reached the ground his body shifted onto his right side and his shoulder had absorbed most of the impact. She told him that they had to call in the pro hero Recovery Girl and small team of others with healing quirks to bring him back from the edge of certain death. All through a constant flow of tears.

Throughout the entirety of this one sided conversation, Midoriya noticed that his mother was very obviously avoiding the small little detail that her son had thrown himself off of a bridge.

He didn't bring it up, in fact he didn't even speak at all. Only listening to what she had to say and nothing more. He hardly spared her a glance, only focusing on the ceiling above him. Inko made many attempts to try and bring him into the conversation, but to no avail. Eventually the hours passed and Inko made her way home to allow him some much needed rest. Promising to come back the next day. Midoriya didn't have the strength to give her a goodbye, only focusing on the nothingness above him.

Midoriya's first thought when his mother left the room was that he hadn't jumped off a high enough bridge. Maybe the roof of the hospital would do the trick? The idea was quickly shoved away though. He knew first hand that he had no reason to live, but he had seen and heard how his actions made his mother worry for him. Even if there was nothing in the world that Inko Midoriya could do for her son to make him feel better, he couldn't put his mother through that again. He didn't want to see her in anymore pain. Why was he even still here?

Perhaps haphazardly jumping off the side of a bridge wasn't the best idea in hindsight. But he knew that he couldn't keep on living if he kept getting denied his dream. Midoriya knew that he should've accepted his fate earlier on in life. That he should've resigned himself into looking for other paths. But becoming a hero was the only thing that got him excited. It was the only thing that allowed to get up in the morning.

The only thing that motivated him to keep on going.

* * *

**Author's Notes: Short chapter, but a good one (or bad). I swear next chapter will be the last "sad" one for a long time. But I needed to get this out of the way. Since you guys already know what happened after Midoriya jumped, I won't waste time reinterring him transferring schools and all that. But let me take the time to explain things that I didn't feel like writing out.**

**1\. None of Midoriya's former classmates know what happened. One day he was in class, after that they never saw him again. Including Bakugou and his goons. Most fics that I've read have had Inko and Mitsuki Bakugou as friends, but this one doesn't. So Bakugou never had a way of finding out. As far as he knew, Midoriya just ran away from school like a coward. **

**2\. Part two will come later. That's going to be Midoriya meeting All Might for the first time and being selected for OfA. I got something good cooked up for that. If anyone can guess how that went down, I'll be impressed. Would you guys mind seeing a Jiro cameo for that part? I'm still 50/50 on it.**

**3\. What do you guys think is going on with Bakugou right now while he's in custody of the League?**

**4\. I'm thinking about redesigning Midoriya's hero costume. I would love to hear your guy's suggestions. **

**As always, thank you for reading and don't be afraid to drop a review. This is still a hurt/comfort fic, but I want to bring up the mood now. **


	26. Night of Mayhem

Kendou doesn't know when it happened. But at some point during the story she had pulled Midoriya into the tightest hug possible. The tears were pouring from her eyes and her throat was dry. She was having a hard time processing all of this. She had no idea what to do right now.

"That's quite a lot to take in Midoriya." Tokoyami said after shaking the shock out his body.

"He's telling the truth." Jiro spoke up. The other three students looking at her with confusion before pointing to her ears. "Your heart rate becomes sparatic when lying, even people trained to beat lie-detectors can't hide it."

"Wow." Todoroki simply said.

"Izuku…"

"All this time I thought that I was past all of that...but I guess that I wasn't." Midoriya downturned his gaze onto the floor.

"I wouldn't expect such an event to have been forgotten so easily." Tokoyami stated.

"Can you guys promise to keep this between us? I know that I'm already going to have to tell the teachers about this. But I'd prefer if the rest of the students didn't know about it."

"Midoriya, what you just told us is serious. Once the pros rescue him, the school should know about thi-"

"I know. But as weird as this sounds, I don't want anything bad to happen to Bakugou. I can't say that I've forgiven him for everything, but ultimately it was my decision to do...that." Midoriya interrupted Todoroki. He still couldn't bring himself to do it. Bakugou was a jerk, but he was still trying his hardest to be a hero. He couldn't rob someone of their dream because of personal reasons.

"If you say so."

Before either student could say another word, a knocking sound came from the door. Everyone looked around to each other and then back to Midoriya before the green haired boy gave Tokoyami a nod. The raven headed student then walked over to the door and unlocked it.

In walked a tall blonde haired man that all but two of the students had seen before. He was bone thin with hollow cheeks. But something about him seemed oddly familiar.

"I apologize, I didn't know that young Izuku already had visitors." Yagi spoke as he looked around the room.

"Who are you?" Jiro asked.

"H-he works for the school." Midoriya quickly answered.

"Oh."

"Yes, I've come here to check up on the conditions of all the students." Yagi said with a short smile.

"That's good to hear."

There was still a lot that Midoriya wanted to say to his friends, but he figured that he would have to save the rest of that conversation for later. There was obviously a more pressing conversation that he needed to have.

"H-hey, can you guys give us some privacy?"

"Sure thing." Todoroki nodded.

"We'll see you later, Midoriya." Jiro told the boy with a quick wave.

"Alright."

The last person to leave the room was Kendou. She still had so much on her mind in that moment, but didn't want to fluster the already injured boy with such sensitive questions. "Hey Izuku, text me as soon as you get out of here." The orange haired girl said with one final squeeze of his hand. Slowly breaking away the contact before walking out.

"A-alright."

Once the other students were finally gone and the door was closed, the two 'One for All' users shared a moment of silence between them. In Yagi's mind, there was a whirlwind of things that he wanted to say. He had heard the events of the camp in detail. And honestly he didn't know what to think. But overwhelming his successor was not something that he planned on doing.

"How are you feeling, young Izuk-"

"Toshinori-san, I'm sorry!" Midoriya interrupted the blonde haired man as he sat down in the chair next to his bed.

"For wh-"

"I let you down."

"No young Izuku, I'm afraid that I'm the one who let you down."

"Huh?" Midoriya raised his eyes up to him.

"If I had been there instead of relaxing at home, none of this would've happened."

"That's not true. I was the one who-"

"Young Izuku, I heard about what happened with that villain's quirk. You weren't in control of what you were doing."

"But still…"

"I know that you blame yourself for young Bakugou being captured. And I know that me telling you that it wasn't your fault won't assuage the guilt that you're feeling right now. But please don't try and shoulder the burden of this on your own."

As much as Midoriya wanted to believe the words coming out of the mouth of the 'Symbol of Peace', he just couldn't. The guilt inside of his soul was too overwhelming. How could someone who wants to be a hero, cause so much chaos? How could someone with so much anger in his heart ever hope to save others?

"Toshinori-san...a-are you sure t-that I'm the right one?" Midoriya's voice was shaky and the tears were coming out in full force. "Are you sure that you didn't make a mistake?"

"I don't-"

"After what happened...do you still think that I'm the one who should have been given 'One for All'?"

This was a question that Midoriya had ever since waking up that morning. After everything that he had done to his classmates and teachers, was he truly worthy of wielding such a gift?

"Yes." Yagi simply said. Not an air of reluctance in his voice. "I've already told you. There has never been a doubt in my mind that you were the right one to choose as my successor."

"But I hurt people. My classmates. It's because of me that so many people got injured…."

"You're still a boy, young Izuku. You're still learning and you're going to make mistakes along the way. But none of this falls on you."

"But I still-"

"I understand how you feel. And I understand that you may doubt yourself even now. But I still believe in you. So does everyone else."

"Why?"

"Because you have the heart of a hero, and you're a fine young man."

That's pretty much what it all boiled down to wasn't it? The heart of hero. Yagi's words lingered inside of Midoriya's mind and he started thinking. Having the heart of a hero was something that anyone could have. That intangible trait didn't make him special in the slightest.

There were many other students at U.A. that possessed such a trait. Most of his classmates had a heroic heart at the end of the day. Anyone of them would probably have been a better choice. Someone like Togata, from everything that he had heard, was a prime example of this. Even amongst the first years, he had seen first hand how people did heroic things like it was second nature.

"There's also something else that I wanted to discuss with you." Yagi interrupted the boy's train of thought.

"What is it?"

"I shouldn't be telling you this. But I knew that informing you would ease your nerves."

Midoriya was confused. What could the man sitting before him possibly tell him that would ease the pain that was welling up inside of his heart right now?

"We're putting together a team to go and rescue young Bakugou, tomorrow night."

"Really?!" Midoriya almost shouted out. Quickly regaining what was left of his composure.

"Yes, we've already recruited quite a few of the top heroes to accompany us on this operation. Considering the threat that we're dealing with, we need a lot of the heavy hitters."

"Like who?"

"Myself, Endeavor, Best Jeanist and even Edgeshot are among the ranks that we've gotten so far. If it's the League that we're going up against, there's a chance that we may encounter All for One."

Having so many top heroes certainly did make sense. If there was even a possibility of encountering the man that he had heard so much about, they would need all of the firepower that they could get their hands on.

"What about Yuuto-san? His quirk is perfect for this kind of thing. And he already understands how dangerous All for One is." Midoriya asked. He hadn't heard from Heruzo since his internship ended and something like this was right up his alley.

"Yes, I contacted him personally this morning. But unfortunately, him and his team are on a mission out in Okinawa right now."

"I see." That certainly didn't help his worries at all.

"I hope that me telling you this will give you a bit of solace. Rest assured that we will get young Bakugou back and put an end to this."

"Yeah...you're right."

"I've been told that you'll be discharged later today. Please do your best to rest up and relax for now."

"Alright."

* * *

All Might: Hey

Fist: Hey! How are you?

All Might: I'm fine. I got discharged from the hospital a little while ago.

Fist: Good to hear!

All Might: Yeah.

Fist: Thanks for letting me know!

All Might: Well you said that you wanted me to text you as soon as I got the chance.

Fist: You're right. :-)

Fist: So what are you up to?

All Might: Nothing much.

Fist: Sweet.

Fist: Hey, do you want to hang out tomorrow?

All Might: ?

Fist: I know it's kinda outta the blue, but it's better to have friends around when you're recovering.

All Might: I would like to, but my mom doesn't really want me leaving the house right now.

Fist: That's understandable.

Fist: Why don't I just come over there?

All Might: You don't have to. I know you live pretty far away.

Fist: You're right. But you're my friend and I want to make sure that you're doing well.

All Might: I appreciate that.

Fist: We can invite everyone else if you want?

All Might: No, everyone's probably busy with everything that's going on.

Fist: Are you sure?

All Might: Yeah

Fist: It'll just be the two of us then. I'll bring some of my mom's yakitori.

All Might: Alright

Fist: Awesome, I'll be there at 18:00?

All Might: Okay

* * *

The next day, Kendou was in a surprisingly good mood. Sure she had been over to Midoriya's house before, but last time was completely random. This time it wasn't. And she was doing her best to mentally calm herself down, but part of her couldn't.

All she was doing was going over to a friend's house to cheer him up after a traumatic event. The caring friend in her was strictly focused on keeping Midoriya in goods spirits to take his mind off of everything that happened over the last few days. However, the part of her that had a crush on him wanted to seize the opportunity. But it would've been in bad taste to even think about making a move on him. So she pushed that deep down into the trenches of her mind.

Kendou also wanted to use this chance to talk to him some more. She still had a ton of questions and concerns about her green haired classmate, more specifically his mental state right now. But she might get the chance to have him open up to her. Above all else, Midoriya needed a friend right now, someone that he could feel comfortable around. She knew that was going to be a tall order to fill, but she was prepared to try by any means necessary.

It wasn't long before the orange haired teen found herself walking up the stairs of the modest apartment building. The second that her hand finished knocking on the door, her nerves immediately skyrocketed. Was she really about to spend the rest of her evening in a boy's house? Did she bring enough yakitori? Should she have worn pants instead of shorts? No, now wasn't the time to think about stuff like this. She was here to make her friend feel better, nothing more, nothing less.

The sound of the door opening up in front of her quickly brought her out of her thoughts.

"Hey, Izuku!" She greeted the green haired boy with a warm smile.

"Hey." Midoriya simply replied, giving her a bit of space to walk in. The boy was dressed in black gym shorts with a white tank top with the word "tank top" on it. His arm was free of the heavy cast that she had seen him in yesterday and was replaced with some heavy bandages. There were subtle bags under his eyes from what she assumed to be oversleeping, but that made sense considering his condition.

"Thanks for letting me come over."

"No problem."

"Thank you for having me, Inko-san." Kendou gave the green haired woman a polite bow. She was wondering how the boy's mother was handling all of this, but she seemed to be in a good mood for the time being.

"It's no problem dear. I'm actually glad that one of Izuku's friends decided to drop by with everything that's been going on." Inko waved off.

"I know what you mean."

"I have to go to work in a few minutes, but you two just enjoy yourselves alright."

"No problem." The two of them said in unison.

_'Wait...that means that the two of us are going to be alo- Nope, nope, nope, bad Itsuka! You're here as a friend to cheer up another friend. That's it!'_ Kendou mentally chastised herself.

True to her word, Inko was out the door barely five minutes after Kendou had arrived. Midoriya had been relatively quiet up until this point, but that was understandable. Kendou felt like she was failing her mission already, but was not about to accept failure just yet.

A couple of minutes later, the duo found themselves sitting down on the living room couch. Midoriya had pulled out some food that his mother had apparently made before leaving and set it down on the coffee table in front of them. Kendou followed suit with her container of yakitori.

"How's your arm doing?" The orange haired girl asked, hoping to break the slight bit of tension in the air.

"Better. I had my last session with Recovery Girl this morning. I should be back to a hundred percent in no time." Midoriya replied with a slight wave of the arm.

"That's good to hear." She gave him a smile.

"Look, Itsuka...I know you said that you don't blame me what happened, but I'm sorry for causing you to get hurt."

"And I already told you before, I don't blame you for any of that. The only person to blame was that villain."

"I know but-"

"Nope! Tonight I don't want to hear anything about what happened. All we're going to do is relax, eat this yakitori and watch a few bad movies." Kendou said while grabbing the remote and searching through the list of movies with the lowest ratings.

"Bad movies?" Midoriya's confusion was not lost thanks to his facial expression.

"Yeah. You've never just sat down with people and ironically watched a terrible movie and make fun of it?"

"N-no."

"Well that's what we're going to be doing tonight."

A part of Midoriya was perplexed at how someone could voluntarily sit through something that they wouldn't enjoy. But the other part of him was glad that Kendou was making the effort to cheer him up. He still felt guilty about everything that happened back at the camp. And he definitely hadn't forgiven himself yet. But the way the girl beside him was taking time out of her day to lighten his mood warmed his heart.

_'She really is a great person, isn't she?'_ He smiled at the thought.

"What are we going to watch?"

"Oh, you're going to love this one, it's from the time before quirks. It's called _"District Nine"_." Kendou gave a slight chuckle after pressing the "play" button.

"Is it any good."

"Oh no, it's horrible."

"Oh, a-alright then."

* * *

"Wow, that was...something else." Midoriya deadpanned as the end credits began rolling through the screen. Kendou was right, that movie was bad.

If it wasn't for the funny comments that the girl shot off every other scene, he doubted that he would've been able to sit through the entire thing. He tried his best to participate in the jokes, but he wasn't nearly as comedic as his orange haired friend. However, there was a certain thought that crossed his mind a few times while they were making fun of the trainwreck of a film. _'Itsuka has a really cute laugh.'_

"Right!"

"And people do this kind of thing all the time?"

"Yeah."

"Okay." The green haired boy relented.

The two of them decided that now was a good time to dig into the food. It was pretty quiet for the most part, aside from a bit of small talk every now then. But it was a comfortable kind of silence, rather than an awkward one.

"I heard that there's a press conference with the school going on right now." Midoriya said while he scrolled through his phone. He was still a bit worried about Yagi. His predecessor had neglected to tell him what time the operation to retrieve Bakugou was going to take place, but that was probably for the best.

On top of that, he still had concerns about Kirishima. He knew that the red haired boy was probably still emotional about everything that happened. Which was more than understandable. But from what the _'hardening'_ quirk user had said, he needed Yaoyorozu to go along with his half-baked idea of going to find Bakugou. And he knew that the raven haired vice-rep of his class wasn't irresponsible enough to go along with his idea.

"Yeah."

"Did you want to watch it?"

"Not really. The media has been coming after U.A. this entire week so I'm pretty sure it's just going to be a circus. Plus, we're supposed to be taking our minds off things, remember?"

"Yeah."

"Hey, can you grab me another yakitori?" She pointed over to the half empty container. She would've reached for it herself but Midoriya was closer. On top of that she didn't want to lean over him and run the risk of bumping up against his injured arm.

"Sure." He nodded.

The coffee table was a bit out of arm's reach for him, so he had to stand and lean forward a bit. As he was doing that, Kendou's eyes were still on him, giving her a full view.

_'Wow, Izuku has a really nice but- Nope, nope, nope! You can't be thinking like that right now. You're supposed to be cheering up a friend. Not checking him out. Then again, we are all alone in here…. Nope, nope, nope!'_

"Here you go." He handed her the stick of skewered meat.

"T-thanks." She said, turning her head away to hide the unwelcomed blush.

The two of them sat in slightly more awkward silence again for a couple of minutes before Midoriya was the one to break the ice.

"I really appreciate you coming over and trying to cheer me up, Itsuka." He gave the girl a warm smile that made her heart rate go up a bit.

"Hey, what are friends for?"

"Um…" Midoriya's face quickly shifted to a more downtrodden look. "C-can I ask you something?"

"Sure." She raised an eyebrow at him.

"Would you mind not telling the others about...y'know about my scars…"

"I wasn't planning to anyway."

"Thank you."

"No problem." Kendou gave him a thumbs up. "Y'know, if you ever need someone to talk to, about anything at all. I'm here."

"Thanks."

Just before the two could switch the topic, both of phones went off simultaneously.

* * *

_~Setsuna and the Jurrassics~_

T-Rex: TURN YOUR TV'S TO THE JNN!

T-Rex: NOW!

Fist: What?

Microphone: Why?

T-Rex: JUST FUCKING DO IT!

Dumbbell: She's right, do it now!

Cross: What's going on?

T-Rex: NOW!

* * *

The two teens shared a quick look with one another before Kendou quickly grabbed the remote and began flipping the channel to the Japanese News Network.

When she found the appropriate channel, the image on the screen sent a simultaneous chill up their spines. On the screen in front of their faces, was what looked like a city in ruins. From ticker on the bottom of the screen, the news feed was coming from Kamino Ward. But that wasn't the most shocking thing.

When the news camera focused in, it was none other than All Might hunched over what looked to be another person in the middle of all the rubble. On the edge of the screen, there was another person. A short man with grey hair. It only took Kendou a second to recognize the white and yellow costume that she had seen from her online searches.

"All Might, Gran Torino!" Midoriya almost rocketed out of his seat towards the TV.

"What the hell is going out there?"

* * *

2000km away in a hotel room in Okinawa, were seven men and women huddled around a monitor with a map of the island on the screen.

The person currently speaking to the group was a short blonde man with green eyes. The others were a tall and muscular mustached man with strawberry blonde hair and blue eyes. A tall woman with brown hair and purple eyes. A young looking man with pink hair, yellow eyes and glasses. A beautiful raven haired woman with golden eyes. A short man with orange hair and matching eyes. And a man with silver hair and burgundy eyes along with a scar on the left side of his jaw.

"So after we infiltrate through the south gate, Yuuto and Hanatoro wil-"

***I AM HERE, A PHONE CALL IS HERE!***

"What the hell Yuuto?" The tall, brown haired woman looked to her teammate with an annoyed scowl.

"Didn't I already to put your phone on silent?" The blonde haired man chastised him.

"Sorry Captain." Heruzo apologized as he awkwardly pulled his phone out of his pocket.

"Shameful." The mustached man looked to him with indignation.

"Who the hell is calling you anyway? This better be important!"

"It's Sen." Heruzo quickly replied.

"What could my sister possibly want at a time like this?" The short man with orange hair asked.

"I don't know." Heruzo said before clicking the green button on the screen. "Hell-"

"YUUTO! ARE YOU BY A TV? TURN TO THE JNN RIGHT NOW! IT'S FUCKING ALL MIGHT!" The voice of Sen Kazeoko blared through the speaker of the small device.

"Well?" The blonde haired man quirked an eyebrow.

"She said she needs us to turn to the JNN, it's important."

"Turn on the TV." The captain ordered the brown haired woman. Directing all of their attention to the other side of the room.

Once the image on the screen popped up, the hairs on the back of Heruzo's neck began to stand on end.

_"The scene below is straight out of a nightmare. Half of Kamino ward was demolished in a single, horrifying instant. All Might is currently fighting the villain who appears to have caused the blast. I can't believe it, h-how is one person so powerful? He's destroyed the city and is more than holding his own with the 'Symbol of Peace'!"_

"Shit!" Heruzo cursed out as the blood in his body began to run cold.

"Yuuto...that's him, right? The quirk thief?" The blonde haired man looked towards him.

"Yeah. Dammit, we need to go over there!" Heruzo's voice suddenly became frantic and uneven.

"Yuuto, they're all the way in Kanagawa." The raven haired woman told him.

"Shit!"

"Look, I know how you feel. But this is All Might, the guy's a walking nuclear bomb. He's got this."

"I hope you're right…."

* * *

Back at with Kendou and Midoriya, the two were watching the events unfold with rapt attention. All Might had just been blown away by some powerful wind attack and Gran Torino stopped him from colliding with the news helicopter.

Kendou was at a loss for words. Not only were things bad, but All Might looked liked he was taking a beating. Granted, the villain that he was facing didn't look to be in any better shape, but to be able to go toe-to-toe with All Might was almost impossible. Her eye's quickly shifted over to Midoriya who looked way more stressed than what she had previously seen before. Watching Gran Torino on the screen must've been sending his mind through the roof right now.

She turned her head back to the battle at hand. In that moment, the villain had launched another powerful air blast towards All Might and the ensuing debris blocked the view of the news cameras. Things were silent for a couple of moments as the cameras regained the television feed. And what she saw next paused all immediate function in her brain.

Standing right where the attack had landed was a man. Skinny, blonde hair, hollow cheeks with sunken eyes. She had seen him before. Not just once, but a few times.

_'Toshinori Yagi?'_

She averted her attention back to Midoriya who was now clutching his head with both hands. Her mind began running a mile a minute. Things were starting to form in her brain and she had no clue what those thoughts were leading to.

What was going on out there?

Why were Gran Torino and All Might together?

Who is that villain?

**_"I guess that's what he gets for being his favorite."_**

Midoriya knew Gran Torino and Toshinori Yagi.

**_"There have been more than a few times where the two of them have been spotted heading off together during lunch. Aoyama-san even says that he caught them walking to teachers lounge once after school."_**

Was All Might really Toshinori Yagi?

Did Midoriya know that Toshinori Yagi really was All Might?

"Izuku...that's…" Kendou's shaky voice started to speak before Midoiya started clutching the coffee table.

"Dammit! He's out of time!"

Time? What did he mean he ran out of time? Did All Might have a time limit? What does that even mean?

Kendou turned back to television to see what was going on now. The two combatants looked to be exchanging words. But her mind was still foggy at the moment. Before her brain could wander any further, the sight of Endeavor and Edgeshot appearing on the battlefield lightened her heart a little bit. The situation looked grim, but with three top heroes there...no, something wasn't right. All Might was still standing there, rather Toshinori Yagi was still standing there.

As the Endeavor and Edgeshot began exchanging blows and attacks with the villain, the sound of a teardrop hitting the table caught her attention.

Midoriya was crying, why was he crying? She had never seen him cry before. Kendou didn't know what to do in that moment, Midoriya knew something. She had no clue what that something was, but if it was enough to make him start crying then it certainly wasn't good.

She had no clue what forced compelled her to do it. But Kendou immediately grabbed the boy's bandaged hand with her own. He winced for brief second but his eyes never left the screen.

She turned her attention back to the screen once again. But she almost instantly regretted it when she saw the villain that was now floating above the sky transform his arm into...something. Even from the almost grainy image on the television, she could see what looked like extra limbs and spikes protruding from the man's arm. _'Does he have more than one quirk?'_

"What the hell?"

"No, no, no, no…."

The villain flung himself forward. The two juggernauts collided fists and Kendou's heart almost dropped. You could see the wind pressure from their attacks even through the screen. Then suddenly, All Might's right arm shrunk down. From the brief flash that she saw, one thing came to mind. _'His arm looks like Izuku's did back at the camp.'_

What happened next blew her mind.

All Might's left arm grew in size and he managed to land a blow on the masked man's face. Then, his right arm enlarged once more. With what little strength he probably had left, the 'Symbol of Peace' landed an attack that she had only heard stories about.

_'United States of Smash?'_

The ensuing tornado was enough to blow back the news helicopter along with everything in sight. And then the world went quiet. Midoriya clutched her hand but she couldn't look away from the screen. A few seconds later, the smoke cleared and All Might was standing over the villain.

_"All Might wins!"_ The news reporter shouted.

That was the last thing that Kendou heard before turning her attention back to Midoriya. The green haired boy looked to be on the edge of a breakdown.

"Izuku…" She quietly let out only a moment before wrapping her arms around him. She had a slurry of questions in her mind right now, but those could wait.

"It's going to be okay."

* * *

**Author's Notes: Another upload! So yeah, I decided to have Midoriya be with Kendou during the fight since he didn't go on the rescue mission. Was this a good idea? I like think that it was. I still don't know how exactly I'm going to have Kendou find out about OfA, but I decided to just plant the seeds here now. If you guys have any suggestions I'm all ears. **

**1\. I'm going to be honest, I have no clue how the students rescue mission went. I can't think of any ideas on how to swing that. Just know that Todoroki, Kirishima, Iida and Yaoyorozu still ended up going. The students will find out about it later when they move into the dorms. But for now I'm drawing a blank. **

**2\. I saw your guy's reviews from the last chapter. Rest assured that you will find out how the school and police handled Midoriya's suicide attempt when part two comes out. I'm not going to spoil it, but let's just say that things got pretty difficult for everyone. **

**3\. Don't expect another upload until this weekend. I've been off of work for the last two weeks, so that's why I've been able to upload so many chapters so quickly. But I go back on Tuesday so I won't have enough time to put out the next chapter as quickly as I want to. **

**4\. The next couple of chapters are going to flow kind of weird. But those are going to be more "romance oriented" than anything. Midoriya and Kendou are definitely going to be spending more time together in the upcoming days. **

**Like always, thank you for reading and feel free to drop a review. **


	27. Random Outing

"You're next…"

Was All Might- no, Toshinori Yagi's last words before the man fell unconscious and was rushed over to the hospital.

Over the last few days there had been a ton of speculation over what those words meant. News outlets across the country were trying to dissect the meaning of that statement. Some said that it was a final message to the villains of the world. Others said that it was a call to the next generation of heroes.

But Kendou thought differently.

Something in her mind told her that last message from the man once known as the 'Symbol of Peace' was to one person, and one person only.

Izuku Midoriya.

She hadn't been in contact with the green haired boy ever since the night of the battle. She tried texting him numerous times. Even Jiro tried to get into contact with him. But so far no one was able to reach him and she had a pretty good idea as to why.

Kendou wasn't the smartest girl in the world, but she knew how to put the pieces together when they were right in front of her face. Midoriya knew that All Might was Tosinori Yagi. She didn't get a chance to ask him how he knew. Or why the two of them decided to keep it a secret. But based on his reactions during that battle, he may have been one of the few people in the world who knew exactly what was going at that time.

It all made sense. He got his recommendation to U.A. from both Yagi and Gran Torino. The two of them had been seen sneaking off together for private lunches and meetings. Midoriya literally named all of his moves after him. Hell, they even had similar quirks. But what did that even mean? Was it possible that Midoriya was All Might's son. She had never seen his dad around and from what he had told her his parents were divorced. They didn't share a resemblance, but their quirks were nearly identical. Aside from whatever that black tentacle quirk was that he used back at the camp. Come to think of it, the villain that All Might fought was using multiple quirks too.

"Ahhh!" Kendou screamed into her pillow while slamming her feet on the edge of the bed. This was way too much to think about right now. She needed to talk to him. She was worried about the green haired boy.

* * *

The next day, Kendou received a very surprising text message.

Parrot: Hello, Kendou-chan? This is Inko.

Fist: Hello Inko-san.

Fist: How are you?

Parrot: I'm fine dear. Thank you for asking.

Fist: Is there something that you need?

Parrot: Yes actually. I'm so sorry to bother you.

Fist: It's no problem.

Parrot: Thank you dear. I have a bit of a favor to ask you.

Fist: What is it?

Parrot: Would you mind taking Izuku out today?

Fist: Why? If you don't mind me asking.

Parrot: He's been feeling pretty down these last couple of days. And I'm not sure what else to do. I think that going out with a friend will help him out.

Fist: Sure.

Fist: Is now a good time?

Parrot: Yes! That would be perfect!

Fist: Alright, I'll be over there in a couple of hours.

Parrot: Thank you.

* * *

A couple of hours past before Kendou once again found herself standing in front of the door to the Midoriya household. Truth be told, she had no idea what her and Midoriya were going to be doing today. She needed something that would lighten his mood and take his mind off of things. Maybe she'll think of something on the fly.

"Hello Inko-san." Kendou greeted the green haired woman with a bow. The Midoriya matriarch looked pretty raged from what she could tell. But considering that her son had been cooped up in his room for the last few days she couldn't blame her.

"Kendo-chan, thank you for coming." She gave her a weak smile.

"It's no problem."

"He's in his room, you can just go on in." Inko waved her down the hall.

"Thanks."

As Kendou made the short trip further into the apartment, the fact that she was about to go into a boy's room for the first time ever suddenly dawned on her. Was this too forward? Did he even want to talk to her right now? Should she have worn a dress?

Kendou quickly shook that last thought out of her head. This wasn't the time for any of this. She was simply here as a friend with goal of cheering up another friend. That was it. Nothing more, nothing less.

When she came face-to-face with the door to his room, her nerves started getting the better of her. Maybe she should've brought along Jiro with her, that would've been a good idea. Deciding not to let her emotions get the better of her right now, the orange haired hero in training gave a firm knock on the door. Only to get no response.

She waited another couple of seconds before knocking a second time. And once again, she didn't get any feedback.

"Just go on inside, he never locks his door!" Inko loudly said from down the hall.

Kendou hesitated for a moment before taking the green haired woman's advice. She slowly placed her hand on the doorknob and gave a firm twist. When the door became slightly cracked the aroma of apples and cinnamon hit her nose. It was the scent that she immediately associated with her green haired classmate. Most people would think that because he had green hair that he would have a minty smell, but oddly enough that wasn't the case.

"Izuku?" Kendou slightly whispered as she poked her head in through the opening. Only waiting a second to see if she would get a response.

Once that second passed, she fully entered the room and took a moment to check out the decor. For the most part, everything looked pretty normal. There was a pullup bar and dumbbells in the far corner of the room, which made a lot of sense. Four huge All Might posters hanging on his walls, which brought her mind back to one of the questions that she had for the boy. And sure enough, there was a human sized lump on the bed under a red, white and blue comforter.

Kendou was about to go over to the bed and shake the boy awake before something on the desk caught her eye. There was a stack of notebooks neatly sitting next to the laptop. She remembered him mentioning having a hero notebook back at the hospital and her curiosity had gotten the better of her,

The orange haired girl quietly made her way over to the desk and picked a notebook up from the top of the stack. It looked to be pretty worn down and the title read: **"Hero Analysis for the Future No. 15."**

She briefly paused as the fact that she was about to invade his personal space lingered in the air. Should she really being snooping through his stuff? Especially when he's asleep? She already forced herself into his room, albeit with his mom's permission. But this was still in his space. A second passed before Kendou let the responsible side of her take over and set the notebook down back at the top of the pile. Maybe he'll show them to her another time.

With Kendou's attention now back onto the reason why she was even here in the first place, she quietly toed to the floor over to his bed. The curtains were still closed so there was a faint ray of light right next to where his head was. Once she was practically on top of him, Kendou took a moment to take in the boys features.

His thick green hair was only slightly more wild than what it usually was. And the little bit of light next to his head had a way of accentuating the freckles on his cheeks. The boy was lightly snoring and Kendou would be lying if she said that she didn't find it kind of adorable.

_'Dammit Itsuka, you need to stop doing this! It's bad enough that you're in his room but now you're creeping on him while he's sleeping.'_ The girl mentally kicked herself before regaining her composure.

Kendou took a deep breath to let whatever _that_ was out of her system and gave Midoriya a quick and forceful shake to wake him. Thankfully, one was all it took to get him up. And Midoriya slowly sat up in his bed and immediately rubbed his eyes with both hands.

_'He looks like a cat.'_

"I-Itsuka? W-what are you doing here?" Midoriya looked to her with tired eyes and a lazy groan. His waking brain not yet fully processing everything.

"Your mom wanted me to get you out of the house." She gave him a slight smile.

It was in that moment that the world finally caught up to Midoriya and the realization hit. Kendou was in his room...Kendou was in his room. A pretty girl was in his room. A pretty girl was in his room, standing right in front of him. His entire face immediately heated up and his head whipped around in every direction to make sure that he was still in his bedroom just to make sure that he wasn't losing his mind.

This was a dream right? It had to be. Midorya looked back to Kendou to see that she was dressed in a pair of black shorts, teal sneakers and a white t-shirt. Why was she here? He couldn't remember what she said. Did he make sure to put his dirty laundry away? What time was it? Was this one of those weird nights where he decided to sleep naked again?

Midoriya quickly smacked himself with both hands to get his already overactive mind under control.

"I'm sorry...what did you say again?" The boy asked as calmly as he could, doing his best to force down the heat rapidly rising in his face.

"Yeah, apparently you've been moping around the last couple of days. And your mom asked me to get you out of here for a few hours. "

"I-I um…I-I-I don't think-"

"Nope, come on! Get dressed, we're going out." Kenodu was quick to cut him off. "Your mom wants you get out of the house and I don't like the idea of you being cooped up in here."

"Where are we going?"

"No idea. We're just gonna wing it!" She said with a level of confidence that Midoriya would've found amusing if it wasn't for the fact that he was still coming to terms with having a pretty girl in his room. He was suddenly grateful that he had taken down most of his All Might merch that he had collected over the years.

Midoriya had a feeling that this was going to be an interesting day.

* * *

"You really didn't have to do any of this, Itsuka." Midoriya told Kendou.

"I know, but I wanted to." Was her reply.

The two of them were currently wandering the streets of downtown Musutafu. Midoriya was still trying to wrap his head around the whole situation. And the fact that he was still barely awake wasn't doing him any favors.

"But wouldn't you rather be out doing something else? I get that you wanted to cheer me up, but this is the second time that you've gone out of your way to do this." Why was she so open to taking the time out of her day to do this for him? He wondered.

"I'm doing this because I want to. I'm actually glad that your mom asked me to do this, otherwise you'd still be cooped up in your room."

"Y-yeah, I guess you're right." He relented.

He knew that staying in his room and moping around about everything that has happened over the last few days wasn't good for him. But he just lost the motivation to move around. The first couple of days following All Might's battle versus All for One were busy, to say the least. First, he had another session to receive treatment from Recovery Girl the morning after. That was more a less a stressful visit due to the fact that the healing heroine was now fully aware of the fact that he was still cutting. And needless to say, she was not happy about it. The elderly woman had let him know that as soon as they were back at school, he was going to need to visit her at least once a week to "inspect" his body for any new cuts.

Next was his final interview with the police about what happened back at the camp. He was grateful that the person he ended up talking to was Tsukauchi. It made the entire process slightly more bearable than what it could've been.

After that, was his very first visit to his former psychiatrist in six months. The woman, Dianna Lance, was an American who came to Japan a few years ago for work. She was a blonde woman with blue eyes that apparently knew All Might during his time in the U.S.. And she worked almost exclusively with pro heroes. That session was awkward for him in so many ways. Their chat started off pretty well in the beginning. But once they got right down to the nitty gritty, he just broke down and told her everything. Although the woman did what she could to ease his nerves, he could still feel the tension in his mind increasing. After everything was all said and done, she proposed to him that while he was in school, Hound Dog was to take over his weekly visits and he would start seeing her once every month. He accepted the proposal without any pushback.

Once all of that was over and done with, he got the chance to talk to Yagi a couple of days ago and was grateful that the blonde haired man was still alive and well. They didn't have much time to discuss things, but it was a conversation that he was glad to have. Yagi let him know that the mission to rescue Bakugou had been a success, but the boy still had to be treated for his arms. Apparently while everything was going down, Bakugou used his quirk to stay out of the villains reach just long enough for the pros to grab him and get away. From what he knew, it only further injured his arms but the fact that he was now safe was weight off of his conscience. Midoriya also had the feeling that there was something that his predecessor wasn't telling him, but he didn't pry into it.

But the reality of the situation was pretty grim. Yagi no longer held 'One for All' in his body. The 'Symbol of Peace' was finished. And with Shigaraki still on the loose, things were going to fall on him.

"So where are we going?" Midoriya asked his orange haired partner who was still leading him through the city streets.

"To the arcade." Kendou replied with no hesitation.

"What?"

"There's an arcade a couple of blocks away from here that just opened up. We're going to go there and have a fun time. Plus I hear there's one of those old-school motorcycle racers and I really wanted to try it out."

"O-oh yeah, you did say that your parents make custom motorcycles, right?"

"They sure do. But my dad won't let me ride any of them because I'm still _"Too young for that right now."_."

"Alright."

* * *

Once their business at the arcade was concluded, the two young heroes in training found themselves once again aimlessly walking the streets of Musutafu. Kendou was satisfied with herself, so far she was doing well with her mission to make Midoryiya feel better. The two had a pretty good time at the arcade. Aside from running into a few fans that had questions about what happened at the camp, everything was going relatively smooth.

A few minutes later into their stroll, the two of them decided to take a shortcut through a nearby park. However once they were near the playground area, a sniffing sound along with a few coughs caught their attention.

"Did you hear that?" Kendou asked Midoriya.

"Yeah." Midoriya replied, rotating his head in every direction to see where the noise came from.

A second later he found it. About twenty meters away from where they were standing was a little girl sitting by herself on the swingset. She had tanned skin and black hair, along with pointed ears.

"What's that girl doing over ther- Izuku!" Kendou started before Midoriya began making his way over to her. She wanted to try and stop him but he was already well out of arm's reach.

"Hey, are you okay?" The quirk inheritor asked the little girl, kneeling a couple of meters in front of her. He didn't want to get too close to her and wanted to look as non-threatening as possible.

Instead of an answer, all he got back was a few more heavy sniffles.

"Hey come on now, everything's okay." Kendou said, mimicking Midoriya's position right next to him.

The little girl stopped her crying long enough to glance up at them. Her eyes had black sclera along with orange irises.

"What's your name?" Kendou asked.

"It's...it's Nira." The little girl told her after a brief pause.

"Hey Nira-chan. I'm Itsuka and this is Izuku."

"H-hello."

"Can you tell us what's wrong?"

The girl now identified as Nira hesitated for a moment, eyes darting back and forth between Kendou and Midoriya before the tears started flowing again.

"N-no one w-wants to play with me."

"Why not?" Midoriya quirked an eyebrow.

"Why don't you tell us what happened."

"S-some kids from my s-school...they all wanted to play heroes and v-villains. And when I told them that I wanted to play too, they t-told me that I couldn't."

"Why not?"

"B-because of my quirk. They told me that I couldn't play hero becuase my quirk is stupid. A-and I didn't want to play villain."

Midoriya had to bite back the slightest bit of anger welling up inside of him. This little girl was going through something similar that he went through for so many years. People with "lame" quirks were judged nearly as bad as those without quirks at all. It was sad to see that stuff like this still happened.

"What's your quirk?" Kendou asked Nira.

"I can take two things and make them one, but it makes me really tired when I do it." The black haired girl explained.

"What do you mean, Nira-chan?" Kendou tilted her head. That was a really vague description of what someone could do.

"I can take two things and put them together to make one." Nira said a second time.

At this point Midoriya and Kendou were both equally confused. Neither of them wanted to ask her to explain it a third time, mainly because they knew they would get almost identical wording.

"Can you show us?"

"O-okay."

Nira looked around the three of them in search of something. All Midoriya and Kendou could do was just watch. After about forty-five seconds of looking around, Nira picked up a decent sized rock along with a small branch. The black haired girl then proceeded to place both objects together in between the palms of her hands. At first, nothing happened. The two U.A. students sharing a quick glance with each other before a faint orange glow could be seen coming from Nira's hands. And in the blink of an eye, what was once two separate objects had become one. Instead of a rock and stick in the girl's hands, was now a block of wood that was shaped exactly like the rock.

_'Transmutation? I can't say for sure. Does she combine things at a molecular level?'_ Midoriya wondered as his mind began racing. A quirk like that is incredibly rare. In fact, the only person that he could think of with an ability even close to that was the head of Yaoyorozu Industries.

"Wow, that was amazing!" Midoriya practically beamed with stars in his eyes.

"Yeah, that's a really cool quirk." Kendou agreed.

"Y-you think so?" Nira looked to both of them with a bit of surprise in her voice. The girl was lightly panting, probably due to using her quirk.

"Of course! You can do a lot with that. Combining things like that is a really useful power."

"What do you call it?"

"My parents named it _'Alchemy'_."

"Wow, you have an awesome power."

"That's what the adults say. B-but everyone says that it's a dumb power for a hero to have. I can't fight villains or save people with it. I can't be a hero."

Kendou was having a hard time wrapping her head around that. Her first reaction was wanting to tell the girl that she could absolutely be a hero with a quirk like that. But she paused before the words could come out of her mouth. Even though her ability certainly had potential and many possible applications, she was having a hard time seeing how it would be able to help her in a fight.

"Of course you can be a hero!" Midoriya piped up, breaking the orange haired girl out of her thoughts.

"Really?" Nira looked back up at him.

Kendou wanted to interject, but decided against it. She was interested in seeing where he was going to go with this.

"Hey Nira-san, have you ever heard of David Shield?"

"N-no."

"He's a scientist and a good friend of All Might. You know who All Might is, right?"

"Yeah, he's my favorite."

"Mine to. In fact, I know him."

"Really?!" Nira's eyes almost blew open. Was she actually speaking with someone who really knew All Might?

"Yeah. He told me tons of times how David Shield's inventions saved people's lives. I've even heard All Might say that he's been a hero to him for a long time."

"But you said the Shield man was a scientist. Scientists don't fight bad guys."

"You don't need to fight villains to be a hero, Mira-san." He told the girl, his voice was confident and resolute.

"What?"

"Heroes are more than just people who fight villains in the streets ya know. Heroes can just be everyday people. Scientists, doctors, firefighters, all of them do heroic things every day."

"You think so?"

"Of course I do. Just because they aren't on TV fighting bad guys, that doesn't mean they aren't heroes in their own way. Tell me, who do you think is there to help heroes after they get injured?" Midoriya asked.

"Doctors, right?" Nira answered.

"That's right. And who do you think gives heroes all of the support items that they need to save people?"

"Scientists."

"Exactly! Do you know the one thing that's better than being a hero?"

"What?"

"Being a hero to the heroes. People like doctors and scientist keep heroes safe and probably save even more lives than they do. And with a quirk like your's, you can do that and so much more. You can even be an awesome scientist who makes new things for heroes to use. You can be a hero to the heroes."

"Yeah?"

"Don't let those other kids tell you that you can't be a hero just because of your quirk. You should always follow your dreams with all your heart. But even if you decide that you don't want to be a hero one day, you can be the person that heroes come to in their time of need. You can be _their_ hero."

"Yeah...yeah you're right mister!" The black haired girl beamed. Kendou was surprised at the almost complete one-eighty that the girl seemed to have made. "My mom says that I can make cool new things with my quirk. I bet I can make a bunch of cool things for the heroes to use to help people."

"Absolutely!" Midoriya gave her a smile and a thumbs up. Kendou had to suppress the slight blush that came on her cheeks. "Now go ahead and wipe those tears from your eyes and give us a smile. Because no matter what, a hero is always smiling."

It took a couple seconds, but sure enough the once sad little girl was now sporting a wide grin.

"Do you feel better now, Nira-chan?" Kendou asked the girl.

"Yeah!"

"That's the spirit."

"Thank you for trying to help me feel better mister…"

"You can just call me Izuku. And this is Itsuka."

"Thank you Izuku, I feel a lot better now."

"I'm glad to hear it." The quirk inheritor gave her another smile.

"Hey, why don't me and Izuku walk you home or call your parents." Kendou suggested.

"It's okay, my house is down the street. I can get there on my own."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah." The black haired girl told he before turning around and walking away, making sure to give the duo one final wave. "Thank you for talking to me. Have a nice day!"

"You too." The two of them waved back.

As they watched Nira run off into the distance, Kendou couldn't help but smile at Midoriya. If she was being honest, she probably wouldn't have been able to think of something on the fly to cheer the little girl up like he just did. She was never good at the motivational speeches. She may have spouted off some generic stuff to her classmates to get them pumped up for training every now and then. But what Midoriya just did was textbook hero work.

_'He really is a great guy, isn't he?'_

* * *

After helping the little girl at the park. The duo made their way over to a small korean barbecue place not too far away from the school. Kendou remembered hearing about it from Awase not too long ago and thought it would be a good place to have dinner.

Unbeknownst to the two of them, when they walked in the door they caught the eye of a few onlookers who recognized their faces.

"Hey isn't that Midoriya over there?"

"Yeah, yeah it is."

"Who's that girl that he's with?"

"I think she goes to U.A. too."

"Do you think that they were at the camp when those villains attacked?"

"Probably."

"Man, that must've been rough."

"Y'know, the pictures don't do him justice. He's kinda swole."

"So is the girl."

"Damn, how'd she get so lucky?"

"Why do all the hot guys have to be straight?"

"Maybe he's just into masculine chicks?"

They heard none of that though, and once the two of them finally sat down and waited for their food to arrive, Kenodu took the opportunity to finally get to a topic that she had been wanting to touch the entire day.

"Hey Izuku...I know this might not be a good time to do this. But I had some questions that I wanted to ask you." The girl looked to him.

"What is it?" He glanced up at her from his phone.

"It's about All Might."

"Oh…" The quirk inheritor's face became downcast.

"If you don't want to talk about it, I understand."

"It's fine. Honestly...I think talking about it to someone will help me out." He told her. He knew that keeping everything that he was feeling bottled up wasn't going to do him any good. "So what did you want to ask me?"

"Honestly, I don't know where to begin." Kendou leaned back in her chair. There wasn't really an easy way to start out this conversation. "I guess I'll just start by asking how long have you known him."

"A little while. I met him shortly after I transferred schools."

"Really?" Her face shifted to a surprised expression.

"Y-yeah."

"That's crazy. How'd you guys meet?"

"As lame as this sounds, I kind of just ran into him one day."

"That's it?"

"Y-yeah...I kinda dropped my backpack walking home from school one day and everything fell out." Not a total lie, but definitely not the entire truth either. "He helped me pick my stuff up and took a look at one of my hero notebooks. After that he started asking me questions about heroics and we kind of just hit it off."

"And that's when started training you?"

"Yeah."

"But your quirk hadn't manifested by then, right?" Kendou noted. She was curious as to why the number one hero would all of a sudden want to take someone who he thought was quirkless at the time under his wing.

"Yeah…" Midoriya trailed off. His eyes darting from side to side as he tried to find a good explanation. Kendou quickly picked up on that. There was something that he didn't want to tell her. That much was obvious.

"So how are you dealing with all of this?" The orange haired girl quickly changed the subject. She could save those questions for another day.

"I'm fine. I was sad to hear about his retirement, but I talked to him the other day and he told me that everything was going to be okay. Honestly I'm just glad that he's alright."

"Aren't we all." She replied with a short smile. Before Kendou had a chance to bring up another topic, the sound of the television directly across the aisle from their table caught her attention. And Kendou will forever regret even looking up at the screen.

_"UNERI Hairspray."_ The soft and sensual voice from the T.V. said.

Kendou's face suddenly fell into a look of utter despair, whipping her head to look at the screen.

_'No…'_

Midoriya's eyes also turned towards the T.V. just in time for Kendou's face to appear on the screen. She flicked her long and curly ponytail in some imaginary wind, a cheerful smile on her face that made his heart skip a beat. He almost forgot how good the girl looked in her hero costume.

_'But she said it wouldn't air for another two weeks!'_ Kendou's thoughts began racing.

_"UNERI Hairspray."_ The soft voice said again. _"For when you want to keep the curls, even when fighting crime."_

The screen faded to black and Kendou immediately dropped her head to the table. Of all the times in the world for that damn commercial to play, why now? It wasn't supposed to be out until next month. What was worse was the Midoriya saw it too. He couldn't not see it, he was sitting right in front of her.

Kendou poked her eye out to look at Midoriya and she was surprised by what she saw. He was blushing. Midoriya was blushing. Why was he blushing? Did he like the commercial?

"Wow, Itsuka. You looked really pretty." The green haired boy absentmindedly said.

"You think so?" She asked him.

He said that? He really just said that? Midoriya thought she looked pretty. Does he always think she looks pretty? This is great! No, this was not great. He just saw her on T.V. waving her hair around like some ditzy teenager. Kendou was having a hard trying to figure out whether she wanted to be happy about this, or embarrassed.

It took a second for Midoriya to register what he had just said, and once he did his face erupted into a furious blush. "O-oh I-I mean uh...y-yeah...you looked...really...g-good."

"T-thanks." Kendou slightly stuttered, a blush of her own on her face.

* * *

"I can't believe that we still haven't heard anything about school." Said Kendou as the two students were making their way down a random city street. Aimlessly wandering around in search of one final thing to do. The sun was starting to set and Kendou needed to be home before it got too late, but she wanted to maximize the amount of time that she got with Midoriya.

"Yeah, I heard that U.A. is still going to be closed for a couple of weeks."

"To be honest, I'm just ready to go back to class. I'm enjoying all the time off, but I would like to get back to training."

"I agree, but…"

"What's wrong?"

"After what happened, I don't think my class…"

"I wouldn't worry too much about it. Everyone should know by now that you weren't at fault for anything. No one in your class strikes me as the type to hold a grudge." Except for maybe a few people.

"I don't know. I wouldn't blame them if they just outright hated me after what happened."

"They have no reason to. You were the victim of that guy's quirk, plain and simple. None of what happened was your fault. Plus, Jiro-chan, Todorki-san and Tokoyami-san would back you up."

"Y-yeah, I guess you're right." He said with a weak grin.

It wasn't long before Midoriya and Kendou found themselves near the train station. There was a coffee shop a little further down the road and the orange haired teen had a craving for a nice warm cup in her hands.

"I had a really great time today, Izuku." Kendou gave the boy a smile.

"Me too." He smiled back.

"I hope this was enough to brighten up your mood."

"It was. Thanks for taking the time out of your day to this. I means a lot to me."

"Don't sweat it. You're my friend and I want to make sure that you're okay."

"Thanks."

"We should hang out again before school opens back up."

"A-are you sure?" Midoriya gave her a surprised look.

"Of course! I like hanging out with you."

"Really?"

"Yeah. And aside from today, we haven't been on a date in a while so I'm definitely looking forward to the next one."

…

…

…

…

…

_'Wait...what did I just say?!'_

You could almost hear the record scratch once the realization of her words hit Kendou like a freight train. She just said that...she really just said that. She just told Midoriya that this was a date. And that she wanted to go on another one. This is bad. No, maybe it's good. No, definitely bad. This was most certainly bad. What was she going to do? She can't pretend like she didn't just say it. Wait, what was Midoriya doing right now?

Kendou reluctantly turned her head over her shoulder to glance back at Midoriya. When their eyes met, the only thing Kendou could see was the blank expression on his face. She couldn't quite place the look. It was somewhere in between shocked and...something else. Was that a good thing? No, it definitely wasn't.

_Date...date...date...date._ The word echoed in his mind for a few seconds as he tried to rationalize the world around him. A date? Was this a date? He was on a date right now? No, there's no way that's possible. If that were true, then that means that Kendou wanted to go out on a date with him. Did she want to go out on a date? What does that mean? Why? This is great! No, this is not great, this is the opposite of great. Why did he think this was great? What is going on right now? Maybe he was actually still asleep in his bed. Yeah, that was the most logical explanation...right?

"I-I'm sorry, Itsuka. I-I don't think I heard you correctly. W-w-what did you just say" Midoriya asked after shaking his head a couple of times.

Kendou immediately felt the fire rising in her head. Her mouth suddenly became dry and her ears were burning. What was she going to do? She needed to think of something and quick.

"I-I meant...like...a friend date. Y-yeah...a friend date! Y'know, just two friends...hanging out...kinda like a date, b-but not really. Y'know, like a totally platonic friendly outing. Yeah…" Kendou uncharacteristically sputtered out while waving her hands in front of her face.

"Oh...okay...yeah. That makes sense." Midoriya nodded, doing his best to hide his own blush. Yeah, of course that's what she meant. A friend date, that makes total sense. There was no way that she meant an actual date, that would've been insane. Right?

"Yeah...totally." The orange haired girl rubbed the back of her head, doing everything that she could not to look her crush in the eyes. "H-hey, I just remembered that my dad needed me to go and get something before I got home. And it's getting pretty late. I...will…c-catch later, Izuku."

"Yeah, I'll see you around."

"Have a good rest of your evening, bye!" The girl ran off towards the train station.

"Yeah...bye…"

* * *

For the nighttime hero Eraserhead, more commonly known as Shouta Aizawa, his life had been total hell for the last few weeks. What was supposed to be a regular school sanctioned training excursion, turned into a complete and utter nightmare. Not only had one of his own students ended up captured by a group of villains, but many others were injured as well. And if his life wasn't bad enough, the press conference that he was forced to endure a few days ago was its own special kind of headache.

It took everything in his power not to fly across the conference hall and strangle a few of those asshats who called themselves reporters. Having to navigate his way through the questions about his own judgement call in letting the students fight was tedious enough as it was. But when one of those sleazebags had the audacity to imply that one of his own students was working with the 'League of Villains', he almost lost his professional demeanor.

Ironically, this brings us to the situation that the nocturnal hero currently found himself in.

"Yes, Aizawa-kun. Was there something that you wanted to discuss with me?" Nezu greeted Aizawa as the man walked in through the door.

The black haired man was silent as he made his approach towards his boss' desk. Not even sparing a moment to take his eyes off the small, furry creature as he dropped a manilla folder labeled: **Case #002187** in front of him.

"I would ask if you knew what was in this file, but I have a feeling that you already do." Aizawa said with a tired and expectant look. In the midst of everything else that was going on, this was another issue that had high priority.

"Yes, the contents of this folder pertain to young Midoriya's incident a couple of years ago."

"Sir, this is serious."

"Yes, I am well aware."

"Why did you not inform me of this?"

"Simply put, it would've been against Midoriya's wishes. All of the information in here wasn't meant to be shared so easily. The only people who needed to know of this were myself, Toshinori-kun and Chiyo."

"I understand, but-"

"Have you had a chance to review the case in its entirety yet?" Nezu interrupted him.

"Yes, I have."

"And would you say that it was a very _thorough_ investigation?"

"No...it was _cursory_ at best."

"And why do you think that is?"

"A few reasons. The first being that, from what I've been able to gather...Midoriya wasn't as cooperative as he should've been throughout the process. He failed to provide any names for the obvious bullying and abuse that he was going through at the time. I fully intend on asking him about that myself."

"Yes, I questioned him on that myself and he still chose not to give us any names."

"The second, is that the school was obviously negligent regarding the information that was given to the police. Multiple faculty members stated: _"He was a model student. We didn't notice any issue regarding Izuku Midoriya while at school."_. Every one of these teachers gave this exact phrase, word for word during their interviews. Which would sound fishy to any halfway decent investigator. It's obvious that they were just trying to cover their own asses."

"I would imagine so."

"Because of this, I decided to do some more digging into this _Aldera Middle School_. And I found something very interesting."

"Oh?" Nezu simply replied. He knew where this conversation was going.

"Katsuki Bakugou, Midoriya's classmate. He attended that school at the same time as Midoriya. I took the liberty to go into his file as well and it was absolutely spotless. Not one single blemish on the boy's record the entire time."

"Yes...so far as we know, he was a model student."

"Sir. You know as well as I do that Bakugou's behavior _isn't_ a recent development. Taking that into consideration along with his near perfect record, it's obvious that the faculty at this school intentionally kept his files clean. Along with his "relationship" with Midoriya, it stands to reason that he was one of the students who partook in his abuse. The night of his incident, Midoriya was found to have multiple burn wounds on his ribcage along with other injuries not related to his suicide attempt."

"Yes, I came to this conclusion myself."

"And you still let him attend the school?"

"Aizawa-kun, due to Midoriya's obvious reluctance to provide any insight as to what he went through during his time at Aldera, there was no concrete evidence that would've implicated Bakugou in any of these acts of abuse. We simply couldn't deny admittance to a student based on assumptions."

Aizawa hated to admit it, but he had a point.

"My next question is, why hasn't Midoriya been seeing Hound Dog for his psychological issues?"

"During one of my sit downs with him before I gave him his recommendation, I gave that option to him. After a brief discussion, we agreed that he would go see Inui-kun _voluntarily_ if he ever felt the need to do so. Although we can require a student to seek counseling depending on the situation, in this instance I felt that it was best to leave that choice up to him. I spoke with his psychiatrist briefly before school started and she agreed with this decision. Midoriya's mental state was deemed to be a non-issue at the time."

"I see."

"So my question to you is, what are you going to do now?"

"To be honest, I'm inclined to recommend that both Bakugou and Midoriya undergo psychological evaluations before classes resume. But, I'm going to assume that you have already taken care of that on Midoriya's end." Aizawa looked to Nezu, receiving an affirmative nod. "On top of that, I personally want to sit down with the both of them and discuss these matters."

"I can agree."

"However, I will need time to think this over, sir."

"I imagine that you would."

"One thing that is certain, is that we can't have these two in the same class anymore. Objectively speaking, they're both outstanding students. But putting them together in the same classroom after what happened at the camp would be an issue. Also, I want you to consider having Aldera Middle School blacklisted from our applications track. That place is a cesspool of incompetence."

"I will think it over." Nezu simply replied.

With that, Aizawa took his leave. Although he had been working non-stop over the last few hours, his day was just getting started. He still had the issue of five other students that he needed to deal with.

* * *

**Author's Notes: So yeah, quite a bit happened this chapter. Like I said before, this one was definitely a bit jumpy. The next one will be as well.**

**1\. If you couldn't tell from that last part, Midoriya and Bakugou won't be in the same class anymore. For obvious reasons. Do you guys want to see just Midoriya switching classes, or do you want to see a complete overhaul of the rosters? I haven't really decided on it yet, but I will by the next chapter. If so, what students would you like to see in which class?**

**2\. So the cat's finally out of the bag thanks to Kendou's slip up. I know that many of you are wondering as to why Kendou didn't just come right out and confess her feelings to Midoriya, but I'm going to touch on that next chapter as well. I want to give a little more insight into her way of thinking right now. Things are going to be kind of awkward between them for a while, but they'll have their first real date pretty soon. **

**3\. So yeah, the rescue mission was both a success and a failure. I'm just going to come right out and say it, the students ended up getting caught and had to be rescued along with Bakugou. Who do you think was the fifth person in their group?**

**4\. Later on, you guys will find out what exactly happened to Bakugou during his time with the League. And his and Midoriya's next confrontation is certainly going to be an intense one. But that won't happen for a good while. **

**Shoutout to user: DrunkenPanda for giving me the idea of Nira's quirk. **

**As always, thanks for reading and don't be afraid to drop a review. **


	28. Class Is Back In Session

_~M-K Ultra~_

Fist: We have a problem. We have a really big problem.

T-Rex: What?

Cross: This doesn't sound good.

Microphone: Dude, I don't think I can handle anymore problems after the last couple of weeks.

T-Rex: Itsuka what's going on?

Fist: Me and Izuku went on a date today….

Microphone: Really?

Cross: That's wonderful!

Mushroom: Wow already? You go class-rep!

Fist: Wait...Kinoko? What the hell are you doing in this chat?

Mushroom: Setsuna told me about your plan while we were still in the hospital and I wanted in.

Fist: ….

T-Rex: We never agreed to NOT bring anyone else into our operation.

T-Rex: Anyways, back to the matter at hand. Tell us what the fuck happened!

Cross: Language

Mushroom: C'mon spill!

Fist: Like I said...me and Izuku went on a date today.

T-Rex: This is great!

T-Rex: We're already four steps ahead of my sixteen part plan.

Microphone: Yeah, this is awesome.

Fist: No, it's not!

Cross: Why not?

Fist: Because it wasn't supposed to be a date.

T-Rex: I'm lost.

Mushroom: Tell us what happened.

Fist: Okay.

Fist: Earlier today, Izuku's mom invited me over to get him out of the house this morning.

T-Rex: Damn, girl. You already got the mom seal of approval? Now we're six steps ahead of my plan.

Fist: Whatever. After that, I went over to his house and got him out of bed.

Mushroom: I never knew you were so bold!

Cross: I trust that you didn't do anything sinful.

Fist: Of course not! Anyways, after that the two of us went to that new arcade in Musutafu.

Microphone: I heard about that place. Is it any good?

Fist: It's great. Once we were done, the two of us walked around for a bit and Izuku help this little girl who was feeling sad and got her to stop crying.

Mushroom: That's so sweet!

Cross: Midoriya truly has a wonderful soul.

Microphone: That was nice of him.

Fist: It was absolutely adorable. After that, we had dinner at that korean barbecue place a few kilometers away from school.

T-Rex: I love korean barbecue!

Fist: After that, the two of us were walking to the train station. And I may or may not have told him that this was a date and that I wanted to go on another with him.

T-Rex: Hell yeah! This is great. So we're good.

Fist: No, we are NOT good.

Microphone: What's the deal?

Fist: It's the timing.

Mushroom: I'm lost.

Fist: Don't you think that it's bad to float the idea of us dating right now? Especially after everything that's been going on.

Microphone: I get what you're saying.

T-Rex: Honestly I don't see the big deal.

Fist: Wouldn't it seem like I'm just trying to take advantage of the situation? He just got injured. And is having to deal with the fallout from what happened at the camp. It just seems kinda trashy to do something like that.

Mushroom: That does make sense.

Cross: I wouldn't say so. In my opinion it shows that you truly care for him and want to be close to him in his time of need.

T-Rex: Ibara's right.

Microphone: How did Midoriya react to this?

Fist: He kinda just...short circuited.

T-Rex: Sounds about right.

Microphone: After that?

Fist: I told him that I only meant it as us hanging out as friends. Y'know...a "friend date".

Mushroom: That's not good.

Fist: Why not?

Mushroom: You told him that you wanted to date him and then immediately backtracked. You put the idea in his head and then shot him down at the same time. You friend-zoned both him and yourself.

Microphone: It does look like you're being wishy-washy about the whole thing.

T-Rex: Just call him and tell him that you meant what you said and that you want to go out on another date. Easy fix.

Fist: And what if he turns me down?

Microphone: He won't.

T-Rex: Yeah, we already know that he has the hots for you.

Fist: I don't know…

Cross: All of this happened today, right?

Fist: Yeah

T-Rex: Then you still have time to fix it. Just shoot him a text saying that you're sorry for the misunderstanding and that you'd love to go out on an actual date sometime. Preferably soon.

Fist: But wouldn't it just be weird?

Microphone: You're making it more weird by not addressing the topic.

Cross: I agree

Fist: So you guys really think that I should just straight up ask him out?

Microphone: Yes

Mushroom: Absolutely!

Cross: Certainly

T-Rex: Duh?

Fist: I'll think about it.

* * *

And think about it, is what she did.

In fact, Kendou spent the next four days thinking about it. And in that time, she couldn't muster up the courage to try and talk to Midoriya.

She screwed up, she screwed up big time. Not only did she pretty much tell Midoriya that she wanted to date him. But she might as well have just come right out and told him that she liked him right then and there. The whole situation was frustrating. Kendou never had any issues when it came to her confidence. But whenever she even got close to telling the green haired boy how she felt, something always ruined it for her. She missed her chance back at the camp thanks to villain attack. She very well couldn't tell him the day he got out of the hospital. And with everything going on over the last couple of weeks, the timing of all of this just didn't feel right. But on top of that, there was one thought still lingering in her mind.

Did Midoriya even want to date her? Sure, the two of them got along pretty well. She knows that he finds her attractive. And he's comfortable enough with her to tell her his personal business. But did that mean that he liked her in that way, or just saw her as a friend? Kendou's mind was a mess and stuff like this was just way too complicated to think about.

* * *

On the other end of the equation, Midoriya's mind was following a similar thought process.

Midoriya couldn't stop thinking about that night at the train station. Did Kendou really mean what she said? Did she actually want to date him? Was it even possible that a girl like her could have feelings for a guy like him? This was too much to think about. Maybe he was just reading between lines that didn't even exist. But there was one thing Midoriya couldn't deny no matter how hard he tried. A part of him was genuinely happy when Kendou said the word _date_.

What did that mean?

He was nowhere near an expert on romance, let alone social interactions. He spent the majority of the last three years of his life avoiding people if nothing else. And in truth, the concept was so absolutely insane that it just wasn't clicking in his mind. Should he say something to her? No, that was crazy. Even with the very slim possibility that Kendou actually did see him in that way, it wasn't like he felt the same...right?

Oh, who the hell was he trying to fool? Of course he liked Kendou.

She's smart, beautiful, caring, a good friend, and someone that he honestly enjoyed being around. She had an energy about her that he couldn't help but feel drawn to. But was the feeling really mutual? Kendou was too good for him, that much was true. She had everything that he lacked. She was popular, outgoing and had a lot of friends. And unlike him, people actually enjoyed being around her, he certainly did. Okay, so he has romantic feelings for a friend. That was normal, right? Stuff like this happens all the time, no need to freak out.

Nope, definitely time to freak out.

What was he going to do? How could he even face her? He never had a crush on anyone before. Let alone even thought about stuff like dating. Should he even try and date someone? He had no clue what he was supposed to in a time like this. Maybe he should ask Yagi for his advice...on second thought, no. That was a horrible idea. There had to be a manual on stuff like this, he might be able to find one online. _'What am I going to do?'_ The green haired boy thought to himself. Even as his mind began racing at a thousand miles an hour, one thought still lingered in his mind.

What could a girl like her possibly see in a guy like him?

Before he could even come up with an answer to that question, the sound of his phone going off drew his attention.

* * *

Microphone: They did it.

All Might: ?

Microphone: Kirishima's stupid plan. They did it.

All Might: What?

Microphone: Kirishima, Todoroki, Iida, Momo and Mina all went to try and go rescue Bakugou.

All Might: What?!

All Might: What happened? Are they okay?

Microphone: Momo told me about it a few minutes ago.

Microphone: They had to get saved by Kamui Woods. Apparently they got out of there just in time to avoid All Might's fight with that villain.

All Might: They're okay right?

Microphone: She didn't mention anyone being injured, but they're in major trouble.

All Might: What's going to happen to them?

Microphone: No clue. But whatever it is, it won't be good.

All Might: I see

All Might: Thanks for telling me, Jiro-san.

Microphone: I just thought that you should know.

Microphone: And call me Kyoka.

All Might: ?

Microphone: We're pretty much passed the point of formalities dude.

All Might: I guess you're right.

Microphone: Yeah

Microphone: I just wanted to let you know what happened in case it comes up when we get back.

Microphone: I'll talk to you later, Izuku.

* * *

If there were two things that Setsuna Tokage hated, it was cold weather and people who couldn't be honest about things. And when it came to Itsuka Kendou and Izuku Midoriya, they were lying to everyone including themselves. Tokage really didn't understand it. Both of them liked each other, that much was painfully obvious. And they were a pretty good match from everything that she had seen so far. So why were the two of them waiting so long to get together already?

The whole situation honestly annoyed her. Here she had an ample opportunity for some guaranteed fun at both of their expenses, and they were just tip-toeing around the subject. She just couldn't understand why the two of them haven't confessed already.

It was at this moment that Tokage decided that she finally had enough. There was a golden opportunity for mayhem to be spread, and she'll be damned if she was going to let this slip through her fingers. The green haired girl sat up from her bed and quickly grabbed her phone off of its charger. Trying to work this from one side was not good enough, she needed to change her approach. And she knew exactly what needed to be done.

"Fine...I'll do it myself." Tokage said as she scrolled through her contacts list. A devious grin present on her face.

T-Rex: Wonderboy, we need to talk!

All Might: Okay?

T-Rex: Why do you keep beating around the bush?

All Might: ?

T-Rex: I know that you and Itsuka like each other. Why haven't you called her back yet?

All Might: Tokage-san, I don't know what you're talking about.

T-Rex: You guys had a date the other day. Why haven't you tried to call and/or text her?

All Might: That wasn't a date.

T-Rex: You and I both know damn well that you don't believe that.

T-Rex: Seriously, seeing you two pussy-foot around this is starting to get annoying.

All Might: This is a joke, right?

T-Rex: Nope

T-Rex: I'm going to ask you some questions and I demand that you answer them honestly.

All Might: Okay?

T-Rex: Do you find Itsuka attractive?

All Might: Well...objectively speaking, Itsuka is very attractive.

T-Rex: But do YOU find her attractive? Yes or no?

All Might: Yes

T-Rex: Do you like her personality? Yes or no?

All Might: Yes

T-Rex: Would you be 100% opposed to the idea of the two of you dating? Yes or no?

All Might: No

T-Rex: So what's the issue?

That certainly was the million dollar question wasn't it? If Midoriya was being honest, the answer was pretty simple. He was nervous as all hell thinking about this whole situation.

All Might: I don't feel comfortable talking about this.

T-Rex: Of course you don't. But we're still going to talk about it anyway.

T-Rex: Do you like Itsuka, romantically? Yes or no?

T-Rex: Well?

Okay, this a good a good thing. He didn't have to say "no", but he certainly didn't have to say "yes". He was being put on the spot, but all he had to do was deflect and he would be good. There was absolutely no need tell Tokage anything about how he felt for Kendou. All that he needed to do right now was to think and come up with an expertly worded response that was neither a lie, nor the complete truth.

All Might: Yes

_'Well...so much for that plan….'_

T-Rex: See, was that so hard?

All Might: Yes…

T-Rex: So why haven't you called her?

T-Rex: You know what, never mind. Check it out. Once we get back to school, I'm giving you two weeks to ask her out.

All Might: And if I refuse?

T-Rex: Do you really want to know the answer to that?

All Might: I guess not...

T-Rex: I knew you were a smart guy. But don't worry moptop, me, Ibara and Jiro already have everything planned out. All you have to do is grow a pair and ask her out.

All Might: What? What does Kyoka have to do with this?

T-Rex: Oh, first names, huh? I never knew you were such a smooth operator. ;-D

T-Rex: While we're at it, call me by my first name from now on too. Or you can refer to me as "Her Highness". Whichever tickles your fancy.

All Might: Why are you like this?

* * *

"I'll be honest Midoriya-san, I thought that we would've had a much harder time trying to convince you to allow your son to live in the dorms." Aizawa said to Inko.

Currently, Midoriya, Inko, Yagi and Aizawa were all sitting in the living room of the Midoriya household. The news that U.A. was switching to a boarding school came a few days after the battle of Kamino Ward. While it made perfect sense for the school to make this change in hopes of keeping its students protected from anymore attacks, there was still the matter of convincing the parents to go along with this.

"Yes. Well to be perfectly frank, I'm still not one hundred percent comfortable with the idea of Izuku going back to U.A.. If it wasn't for Toshinori-kun and Nezu-san, I would've already been looking into other schools for him to go to." Inko told the nighttime hero.

"And we greatly appreciate you allowing him to still attend U.A., Inko. I'm truly sorry for everything that has happened." Yagi gave the green haired woman a smile.

"Aren't we all?"

Truth be told, it did take a fair bit of convincing on Midoriya's part to get his mom to agree to it. The green haired woman wasn't going to deny her son his dream of becoming a hero and having him switch to a regular high school. Especially after everything that he had gone through just to get to this point. But the fact that U.A. had allowed two villain attacks on the school was a major concern. If Inko wasn't so sure that her son could defend himself from these threats, her choice would've gone the other way.

"Now that we have that out of the way, there's another matter that I would like to discuss with the both of you. I'm pretty sure that you already know what I'm referring to." Aizawa looked to both members of the Midoriya clan. The boy knew that this was going to come up at some point, but that didn't make him anymore prepared for it.

"Midoriya, I'm aware of the situation between you and Bakugou. In truth, I would've preferred to know about this before the start of the year, but that's not how things turned out."

"Yes sensei." Midoriya simply replied.

"Since the matter of you seeking counseling has already been taken care of, you're going to have a few special rules in place for you specifically while living in the dorms."

"Alright."

"First, is that we're going to have a "No Sharp Objects" policy for you while in the building. One of the faculty members will be dropping by randomly to check your room every now and then. Think of it as a safety measure for accountability."

"Yes sensei. I have no problems with that."

"Good. Next, your weekly check up from Recovery Girl will be every Friday after class. I'll let you and her sort out the rest."

"Alright." Both Midoriya and Inko nodded.

"I also wanted to be the first to tell you that you will be transferring classes to 1-B when we get back. With the...situation between you and Bakugou, it would be unwise to have you both in the same classroom after everything that's happened. Are you okay with that?"

That bit of information was enough to make Midoriya hesitate a bit. He couldn't argue that it was the most reasonable course of action. Especially after what went down at the camp. Not only would Bakugou certainly be furious with him for causing him to get captured. But the rest of his class definitely knew what happened by now. He already had a bad enough standing in the class as it was, and what happened back at the camp no doubt depleted what little trust his classmates had in him. Getting him out of 1-A was just the logical course of action.

But at the same time a part of him was actually relieved. Transferring to 1-B meant that he would get the chance at a fresh start. To his knowledge no one in that class had a negative opinion of him, except for Monama. And there were already a few people that he was on good terms with. Sure, not being in the same class as Jiro, Todoroki and Tokoyami was a pretty big downside. But overall, it was a positive.

"Yes, sir." The quirk inheritor nodded.

"It's settled then. Aside from that, there's nothing else that I wanted to discuss."

"We'll be taking our leave now, if you don't mind. We still have a few houses that we need to visit." Yagi said the two of them as he stood up from his seat on the couch. Giving them a low bow.

"Yes, well thank you for dropping by. I hope the two of you have an easy rest of your day." Inko replied.

"Thank you."

* * *

_~Setsuna and the Jurrasics~_

T-Rex: So is everybody moving into the dorms or…

Fist: I am.

Microphone: I am

Dumbbell: My parents took some convincing, but they agreed to it.

Cross: I am as well, my mother was a bit reluctant but Kan-sensei was helpful in convincing her.

Raven: I shall be residing in the dorms as well.

All Might: Same

T-Rex: Hell yeah!

Fist: I'm just glad that things are finally going to go back to normal.

Dumbbell: Seriously.

Microphone: Yeah, it's been kind of boring not having anything to do. I'm almost excited to hear one of Cementoss-sensei's lectures again.

Cross: I agree

T-Rex: I just can't wait to start pulling pranks on everyone.

Fist: Why am I suddenly regretting my decision?

T-Rex: Don't worry, I promise to keep everything mildly appropriate.

T-Rex: Except on the weekends.

Microphone: I'm glad that I won't have to deal with any of that.

Dumbbell: Count yourself lucky. She's bad enough during a regular school day, living with her is probably worse.

T-Rex: And here I was thinking that I was going to grace all of you with the sight of me walking around in nothing but my underwear.

Cross: Does your depravity know no bounds?

T-Rex: Probably not.

T-Rex: Side note. Wonderboy, if you ever need someone to keep you company during the night my door is always open. All I ask is that you not wear a shirt...or pants.

Cross: Setsuna!

Fist: Setsuna!

T-Rex: Or I can go to his room, whichever is more efficient.

All Might: I'll pass.

T-Rex: Hey, can't fault a girl for trying. I don't know if I'm your type anyway.

T-Rex: Come to think of it...what is your type, Wonderboy? :-D

T-Rex: SOME of us really want to know.

Dumbbell: And you wonder why you can't get a boyfriend…

T-Rex: Low blow dude…

Fist: I'll make sure to ask Kan-sensei to change your door to one that locks from the outside.

Microphone: Let's just hope that there will be a curfew, for Izuku's sake.

* * *

Moving day came fast for the first year students of U.A.

No matter how much some of the would-be-heroes didn't want to start going back to class again. They were all excited to finally get back to training to achieve their dreams.

Everything from packing to saying goodbye to their families went on as normal, although a bit sad, and they were on school grounds before they knew it. The only thing strange about their day so far was that instead of unpacking their stuff, everyone was huddled together in the school auditorium.

On the 1-B side, Kendou was sitting with her usual crew of Tetsutetsu, Tokage and Shiozaki. Their class was as cheerful and talkative as ever. On the 1-A side however, things were noticeably more tense. Aside from Jiro and Tokoyami, Midoriya was quietly standing in the back of the class.

Ever since they arrived on campus, Midoriya was keenly aware of the looks that he was getting from his soon to be not-classmates. He elected to stay quiet for the most part. Only really exchanging words Jiro every now and then. So far as he was aware, he was the only one who knew that he was going to be switching classes. Midoriya did wonder which 1-B student was the one that he was going to be switching with. Ultimately that decision was left up to Kan. But he was about to find out soon enough.

The one thing that truly unsettled him though, was Bakugou. The ashe blonde was uncharacteristically quiet. He hadn't said a word to anyone the entire morning. But the looks that he were constantly shooting Midoriya's way said more than words ever could. If Bakugou hated him before, he downright loathed him now. And frankly, Midoriya couldn't blame him. It was because of him that Bakugou was captured and had to be rescued. It was because of him that Kirishima and the others went along with their failed rescue attempt. And ultimately, it was because of him that All Might had to retire.

So much of what happened was his fault. No matter what anyone else had told him, he knew this to be true.

Either way, he expected this silent treatment.

"I'm sure that you're all wondering why you're gathered up here instead of moving into your new buildings. Simply put, we have an announcement that we need to make." Aizawa started after moving to the front of the auditorium.

"Starting today, we will be switching up the rosters for both 1-A and 1-B." Kan said.

"What?!" The students all shouted in unison.

* * *

_~A few weeks earlier~_

_"Now that we've got the issue of the new dorms settled, there's something else that I would like to discuss with you all." Aizawa said to the rest of the faculty members who were all gathered up in the conference room._

_"What is it, Shouta?" Midnight asked._

_"I think it would be best if we rearrange the classes this semester."_

_"And why is that?" Snipe inquired._

_"Yeah, how come? We usually don't do this until the start of their second year."_

_"To be frank, it's not so much as the entire class, but one student in particular."_

_"You're referring to Midoriya, correct?" Said Cementoss._

_"Yes. Following the events of the camp, it's stands to reason that the students of my class have outright lost their trust in him. Putting him back in the same class with those that he fought, along with Bakugou could be...problematic."_

_"I see." A few of the other teachers nodded their heads in agreement._

_"So you want to transfer him over to 1-B?"_

_"Would you have any issue with that, Vlad? You did have to fight him yourself while he was under the influence of that villain's quirk."_

_"I have no problem with it. I'm not calloused enough to hold someone accountable for something that they weren't in control of. Plus he should bring our class GPA up quite a bit." Kan gave out a hearty laugh._

_"So it's settled, I propose that we switch him with Monama."_

_"Actually, I prefer your earlier proposal. Let's change up the roster for both classes." Nezu spoke up._

_"Are you sure, sir?"_

_"Yes. If we switch one student, then it will be obvious as to what our intentions are. Rearranging both classes will be less conspicuous."_

_"I agree."_

_"It's settled then. I'll leave the selection up to Aizawa-kun and Kan-kun. Have your proposed rosters on my desk in two days. I'll make any final adjustments myself if I deem them necessary."_

_"Yes sir."_

* * *

Komori was the first to raise her hand. "Uh Kan-sensei. What's with the sudden change, if you mind me asking?"

As far as the students were concerned, the only person who knew the real reason was Midoriya. Even then he certainly wasn't expecting a complete overhaul of both classes. Although it did make sense to do things this way. Switching only one student, him in particular, would make their intentions obvious. Rearranging both classes was probably the teachers way of covering that up. The only other students to catch on to this fact were Yaoyorozu, Honenuki, Kendou, Monama and Tokage.

"We usually wait until your second year to change the class line up, but this year we wanted to keep you on your toes. You all have become complacent with each other's abilities and fighting styles, so shaking things up will inspire you to keep improving." The blood themed hero explained.

"Oh, that makes sense." The brunette put her hand down.

"So who's switching to where?!" Awase blurted out. Curious as to whether or not he's going to have to find a new group of friends to eat lunch with.

"I'm glad that you asked. The new lineups for your classes are here." Kan told the boy as he directed everyone's attention to the holo-projector that simultaneously popped up behind him.

The air in the room grew stiff as everyone scanned the list for their names.

* * *

**Class 1-A:**

-Ashido

-Iida

-Uraraka

-Ojiro

-Kamakiri

-Kirishima

-Kuroiro

-Koda

-Satou

-Shishida

-Sero

-Tsuburaba

-Tsunotori

-Tokoyami

-Todoroki

-Hagakure

-Bakugou

-Monama

-Mineta

-Yaoyorozu

**Class 1-B:**

-Aoyama

-Asui

-Awase

-Kaibara

-Kaminari

-Kendou

-Kodai

-Komori

-Shiozaki

-Shoji

-Jiro

-Shoda

-Tetsutetsu

-Tokage

-Fukidashi

-Honenuki

-Bondo

-Midoriya

-Yanagi

-Rin

* * *

There was a brief moment of silence amongst the students before all hell broke loose.

Quite a few of them let out sighs of relief that they were still going to be in the same class as their friends. In the case of Tsubaraba, Kamakiri and Monama, the three of them were high fiving each other and cheering that their trio wasn't going to be broken up.

The only person who had to take a moment to let it all sink in was Kendou.

_'I'm going to be in the same class as Izuku?'_ The orange haired girl thought as she looked over to where the boy was standing. Out of everyone there, he looked to be the least surprised out of all of them. Did he already know about this beforehand?

Kendou was honestly having a hard time trying to figure out whether or not she should be excited or dreadful at this new development. The two of them hadn't spoken to each other since that day at the train station. And now they were going to be living together. The orange haired teen could already feel the heat starting to rise up in her face.

It didn't take a genius to figure out the teacher's real reasoning for rearranging the classes. Even then it was still a pretty big shock.

"Lucky you, huh?" Tokage gave Kendou a playful elbow to the arm.

"S-shut up." Kendou scoffed, failing to hide the blush on her face.

"Alright, settle down. Now that we have all of that settled, everyone make your way to your new buildings and start grabbing your stuff. For my class, I'll be over there in a couple of hours after I take care of some other business." Kan directed the students of the new class 1-B.

"The same goes for my class. Yaoyorozu, Iida, Todoroki, Ashido and Kirishima, you five remain here. We need to have a talk." Aizawa quickly followed up.

As the students of 1-B began filing out of the auditorium and heading over to their new building. Tokage wasted no time in getting right down to business. In one foul swoop, she threw her arms over Kendou and Midoriya's shoulders. Giving both of them a devious grin.

"Isn't this awesome?! All of us are going to be in the same class. Living in the same building...seeing each other everyday...even on the weekends...with ample time for _recreational activities_...this is perfect!" You could practically see the gears turning in the _'lizard tail splitter'_ quirk user's head with ideas on how she was going to milk this to the last drop.

"Y-yeah." The both of them awkwardly stuttered out.

"I'm honestly surprised. But it should be a good change of pace." Jiro said, trying to defuse what was sure to be an ongoing occurrence for the new classmates.

"Yes, we've been granted an opportunity to form new bonds on kinship with those who share virtuous souls." Shiozaki chimed in with clasped hands, a random ray of sunlight shining down on her.

_'Does anyone else see that?'_ Midoriya and Jiro both wondered.

"This is actually pretty awesome! Now I finally get a chance to test my metal against you Midoriya." Tetsutetsu practically cheered with excitement.

"Yeah, I-I guess so."

"There's no time to waste! We need to hurry and unpack our stuff so I can check out everyone's rooms." Tokage said while dragging Midoriya and Kendou with her.

* * *

A few minutes later back in the auditorium, Aizawa was standing face-to-face with the five students that he had called out. The group already knew what was coming, but that only made their nerves skyrocket even more.

"Let me make one thing clear to the five of you. As of right now, I have lost all faith in you both as students and future heroes." Aizawa began after an exaggerated sigh. "There are three reasons as to why I didn't have all of you outright expelled from U.A."

"The first is that All Might, Tiger and Kamui Woods practically begged me not to kick you all out. So you all will be giving them written apologies for your actions during the rescue mission."

That was more than reasonable to the five of them. If it wasn't for Kamui Woods doubling back around to rescue them, they would've trapped by the ruble and stuck in the middle of All Might's fight.

"The second is that this is a first offense for all of you. It goes without saying, but if any slip up even close to what the five of you pulled in Kamino Ward happens for the rest of the year, that's it."

Aizawa's words resonated with Iida and Yaoyorozu the most. The two of them took pride in being model students. Now, the trust that their teacher had in them had been shattered.

"The third reason is that none of you were seen on camera during the fight. So no one aside from the pros that were present know that you were even there. If any of you _had_ been seen, we would've had no choice but to address this issue publicly."

That one was certainly true. If they had been seen any near that whole situation, they would more than likely be facing criminal charges on top of everything else.

"Now for your punishment. All of you will be on house arrest in the dorms until I can determine that you all have learned your lesson. You will be in charge of all the chores and cleaning in your building until I say otherwise. Next, I want a handwritten fifteen thousand word essay from each of you on the importance of hero regulations along with the dangers and ramifications of vigilantism."

Ashido wanted to let out a groan at the idea of having to do extra cleaning along with more classwork, but the pinkette didn't want to push her luck. She was already on Aizawa's bad side thanks to her less than stellar grades. Annoying him even further was a one way ticket to expulsion.

"Finally, the provisional license exam is coming up...and none of you will be taking part in it. The plan _was_ to have your entire class take the test. So you all will have to explain to your classmates why they'll be short five members come exam day."

"Yes sir, we understand." Iida responded for the group with a clenched fist.

"To be perfectly candid...I'm disappointed in Iida, Yaoyorozu and Todoroki more than anything. The three of you are some of my more responsible students and I assumed that you all would've known better than to go along with this. Yaoyorozu and Iida, you will no longer be the class rep and vice-rep. Handle that before we begin our training tomorrow morning."

"Yes sensei."

Aizawa then directed his gaze toward Kirishima.

"Kirishima, since this entire fiasco was _your_ idea, you will also be helping out Lunch Rush after dinner to clean up the cafeteria for the next three weeks."

"Yes sir." The red haired boy bowed. He honestly didn't regret his decision to go and try saving Bakugou, but the fact that their rescue mission was a complete and total failure left a hole in his stomach. If it wasn't for him, none of his classmates would've been in danger in the first place.

"That is all I have to say, you're dismissed. You will also find a list of your daily chores hanging up on your doors in your building."

With that, Aizawa made his exit. Leaving the group of five to contemplate what they were going to do from here on out.

* * *

**Author's Notes: So yeah, like I said in the last chapter this one was a bit jumpy. Truth be told I wanted to get all of this out of the way in one go and move on to the provisional license arc. **

**1\. What do you guys think of the new class line-up? I decided on a maximum of six students being switched out from each class instead of ten like I originally planned. I honestly didn't expect everyone to know that I was going to move Monama to 1-A, but I guess I telegraphed that one, huh? I broke up the Deku-Squad for a reason, mainly because Todoroki had to be in the group that received their judgement. Plus, 1-B would've had most of the power players in their class if he was there. Also, the students from 1-A that went to 1-B along with Midoriya and Jiro are the ones who don't have a problem with Midoriya. So it will a smooth transition for him.**

**2\. What do you guys think of Aizawa's punishment for the Bakugou rescue team? I think it was pretty fair. Obviously I'm setting up for the Overhaul arc and have been for a while. Who do you guys think is going to be present for that?**

**3\. Yay! Midoriya finally confessed his feelings! I decided against some super dramatic revelation on his end because it's been painfully obvious that he's like her for a while. Things are about to get interesting with these two. Especially with what Tokage has cooked up. What do you guys think their first date will be?**

**4\. Who should be the new class rep and vice-rep for 1-A? I don't really care who it is, so I'll just roll with whatever you guys think. Vote on it in the reviews. **

** everyone keeps asking me in the reviews, I'll address it now. Yes, the history between Midoriya and Bakugou will come out. Not everyone will learn about it, but more than enough of the students will find out.**

**Next chapter is going to be everyone's first night in the dorms and Class 1-B's first training session together. I have something pretty interesting cooked up for that. Also, we may or may not see the appearance of everyone's favorite third years. **

**As always, thanks for reading and feel free to leave a review and let me know what you guys think.**


	29. Class 1-B

Getting settled into the new dorms was actually much easier than the students had originally thought. For most of the new Class 1-B, everyone had their stuff unpacked and set up exactly to their liking.

With nothing on the schedule for the rest of the day, the students all decided to get together in the common area and mingle with each other. The only people not present were Rin, Midoriya and Asui. So far everyone was getting along pretty well and exchanging phone numbers. Kendou and the rest of the girls were huddled around the television talking about random things while the boys crowded the kitchen.

Kendou was kind of sad that Midoriya wasn't taking part in conversing with his new classmates, but she just assumed that he was busy with something else. She still hadn't had a chance to talk to him due to how hectic things were up until this point and she was wondering when would be a good time to try.

After about thirty minutes of random conversation the door to the building opened up, revealing Midnight who was surprisingly dressed in jeans and t-shirt. A much different look from her usually not-so-appropriate attire.

"Aunt Nemur- er, Midnight-sensei...what are you doing here?" Tokage asked the R-Rated hero.

"Hello Setsuna. I'm here for Midoriya, is he still in the building?"

"I think he's still in his room. Do you want me to get him?" Jiro answered.

"If you don't mind."

Jiro was quick to head up to Midoriya's room which was thankfully only on the second floor. And a few minutes later the two of them came walking out of the elevator. Midoriya was dressed in red shorts and a white tank top. The lack of sleeves exposing the multitude of fresh scars on the boy's right arm. A few of the students couldn't help but gawk at his new injuries, but no one wanted to make a big deal out of it.

"Hello, Midnight-sensei." Midoriya greeted the black haired woman.

"I trust that you already know why I'm here." Midnight said with an expectant look.

"Y-yes."

"Perfect, let's head up to your room."

"Alright." The boy nodded before turning around.

"Izuku, what's going on?" Kendou asked, much concern in her voice.

"It's uh...n-nothing." He quickly waved off.

"Alright." She responded. Although totally not convinced that it was "nothing".

With that, Midoriya and Midnight disappeared into the elevator. In the back of her mind, Kendou had a sneaking suspicion that it was concerning his cutting. No doubt the rest of the staff knew about it by now, so checking up on him was probably going to be a frequent thing in their new dorms.

"What's up with that?" Tokage looked to Kendou for an explanation.

"Who knows?" Kendou shrugged. No point in blowing the whistle on something that the others didn't need to know about.

After about fifteen minutes, Midnight came back out of the elevator and made her way to the door. Strutting through the hall with a little bit too much sway in her hips for someone who was in a building full of minors.

"Alright, I'll see you lot in the morning. Now, I know you kids can't wait to _break in_ your new rooms, but do try and save some of that energy for tomorrow okay." The R-Rated hero chirped with an extra sultry tone in her voice.

"Huh?" Practically every student blushed at their teacher's words. Did she really just imply what they thought that she was implying?

"Pfft!" The sound of Tokage trying to stifle a laugh caught everyone's attention.

Yeah, living here was definitely going to be interesting.

* * *

An hour later, the 1-B students were all still gathered in the common area getting ready to watch a movie for the purpose of "class bonding". Everything was rather peaceful until the sound of the front door flying open caused everyone to freeze in place. The group all turned their heads to see the pink haired girl from the support course glaring at them with a giant smile on her face.

"Hatsume? What are you doing here?" Jiro was the first to speak.

"Where's Muscles?" The pink haired inventor simply asked.

"Who?"

"Midoriya. Y'know, green hair, freckles, nice muscles that are fun to touch." She said as if that was more than enough explanation.

_'Wait what?'_ Kendou quietly thought.

She knew Hatsume from her antics at the Sports Festival but didn't know anything about the girl. Why was she here? What did she want from Midoriya? And how exactly did she know that his muscles were fun to touch? These were the questions that Kendou definitely wanted answers to.

"I think he's in his room. He's on the second floor." Awase told her.

That statement was enough for Hatsume to immediately bolt down the hall and into the elevator before anyone could stop her.

"Hey, where are yo-"

"It's no use. Once she gets going, there's no stopping her." Jiro placed a hand on Kendou's shoulder before she could go after the pink haired inventor.

Thirty seconds later Hatsume returned with Midoriya, dragging him by his left arm. Judging from the towel around his neck and the fact that his hair was still wet, he must've just gotten out of the shower.

"Hatsume-san, what are you doing?!" Midoriya frantically asked, looking around the room for anyone who could save him.

"No time to talk. The two of us have a baby to make!" Was her reply.

In the blink of an eye the two students vanished out the front door, leaving everyone absolutely stunned. A brief silence was all it took for Hatsume's words to finally set in. All of the girls minus Jiro and Tokage were sporting furious blushes on their faces. Kaibara's jaw was almost to the floor and Honenuki was just plain confused.

"Um...did anybody else hear what she just said?" Awase looked around for clarification.

"Yeah…." A few others nodded.

"Looks like you got some stiff competition there, Itsuka." Tokage patted her hand on Kendou's shoulder.

"Huh?" Kendou looked to the green haired girl, her face still a constant shade of red.

"I'm just saying. That Hatsume girl sure as hell ain't ugly. You might wanna take that into consideration."

"Whatever…." Kendou crossed her arms in indignation. Maybe she needed to handle this sooner rather than later.

* * *

The next morning, Kendou was making her way out of the building to get ready for her morning workout. One of the many benefits of now living in the dorms was that she had a lot more free time in the morning than she usually did. Gone were the days where she had to wake up incredibly early just to get ready for school. Now she had more than enough time to knock out a few things that would normally have to wait until after she got home.

Kendou wasted no time in lacing up her running shoes and heading out to get her day started. But the moment she opened the door, she was standing face-to-face with none other than Midoriya. The boy was dressed in his usual attire of black gym shorts and a grey t-shirt. There was a heavy amount of sweat on him that did a perfect job of clinging his already fitting shirt to his body.

_'Abs.'_ Kendou thought with a furious blush. Unfortunately, she couldn't blame her red face on the workout.

"O-oh, Izuku. Hi…" She stuttered out after shaking those thoughts out of her head.

"I-Itsuka...h-how uh...what are you doing up so early?" An equally red faced Midoriya greeted back.

In truth, his brain momentarily short circuited when he set his eyes on her. Kendou was wearing a pair of black shorts that showed off her well toned legs. Along with a lime green tank-top that exposed a thin border of her abdomen. He would be lying if he said that the image didn't immediately burn itself into his memory.

_'Pure thoughts Izuku, pure thoughts!'_

"I...was just going to go on my morning run. You?"

"Same, kinda. I usually work out in the mornings and t-the school gym is open."

"Oh, alright." She nodded before a moment of awkward silence. Kendou was not about to let her first interaction with him since moving into the dorms fizzle out like this. "So...did you sleep well?"

"Yeah, how about you?"

"Like a baby. I guess we should be glad that our walls are soundproof, huh?"

"Y-yeah." Midoriya gave a slight chuckle.

"I-I better hurry up and get to my run. I'll see you in class."

"R-right, have fun."

"Thanks."

* * *

"All right students, listen up! As you all know, the focus for all of you this summer is to obtain your provisional hero licenses. I don't need to tell all of you that you should not take this lightly." Kan announced to students of the new Class 1-B.

The students, along with Kan, Midnight, Cementoss, Ectoplasm and Snipe were standing in the viewing area of Training Ground Gamma. All dressed in their hero costumes. It was still pretty early for class to be in session, but no one was about to complain seeing as everyone was pumped to back to training.

"A hero license means that you will be responsible for human lives. You will be able to act on your own initiative or assist pros in times of an emergency."

"The exam itself is very difficult, only fifty percent of applicants pass the tests required to obtain this permit on any given year." Snipe followed up.

"Damn, it's that hard for just a provisional license?" Awase commented.

"Your schedule for the next ten days will primarily focus on you creating ultimate moves for you to use come exam day."

"Ultimate moves?" A few of the students echoed.

"Yes, ultimate moves are skills that you develop that will ensure victory against an opponent." Ectoplasm was the first to explain.

"It's an action that is typically unique to your identity that no other person can copy. Although some people do take inspiration from other heroes."

"Take Midoriya for example." Midnight directed everyone's attention towards the green haired boy, striking a very provocative pose in the process. "He already has a few ultimate moves at his disposal that were no doubt inspired by All Might. However, he also has some that are completely his own."

The rest of the students nodded in agreement.

Midoriya however, had something else on his mind. Because his right arm now had some serious damage, it would be dangerous for him to try and use another smash from that side. And the support item that Hatsume had cooked up for him last night wouldn't be ready for another couple of days. This is what led him to his current problem. He needed to change up the way that he fights. So far he's been able to rely on just overwhelming his opponents with his speed and strength. But now that he was literally down one limb, that needed to change.

On top of that was the issue of _'black whip'_. Ever since the incident back at the camp, he hadn't even attempted anything regarding that. Learning a new super move was already hard enough. But now he apparently had a second quirk that he needed to figure out.

"Simply put, you must learn to lean into your strengths." Ectoplasm's voice brought Midoriya out of his mental rambling.

"Most pros possess ultimate moves, those who don't are fools." Midnight said.

"We won't begin that specific part of training until tomorrow afternoon. Today, we're going to do something that will hopefully help you in creating these moves."

"What is it, sensei?" Shiozaki asked.

"The entire class is going to compete in a ten versus ten battle simulation. The exam is by school, so all of you will be working together come test day. The point of this training is to learn how each other operates and devise any strategies that will help you pass. Also, it will serve as an opportunity for most of you to get acquainted with your new classmates."

"We will be scrutinizing your teamwork above all else, so keep that in mind."

"The teams are as follows." Kan pointed to the holo-projector behind him.

**Team Alpha:**

-Midoriya

-Shoji

-Asui

-Kendou

-Shiozaki

-Fukidashi

-Komori

-Rin

-Kaibara

-Kodai

**Team Bravo:**

-Jiro

-Aoyama

-Kaminari

-Honenuki

-Tokage

-Shoda

-Bondo

-Yanagi

-Awase

-Tetsutetsu

"The teams look pretty balanced in terms of fighting strength." Shoda noted along with a few others.

"The goal is simple, you have to capture six members of the opposing team with capture tape to win." The blood themed hero explained. "Both teams have been assigned a captain and a start point. Midoriya is the captain for Team Alpha, Honenuki for Team Bravo. All direction will come from them. Now, head over to your starting positions and await the signal. We'll start in fifteen minutes."

"Yes sir!" The students all shouted.

* * *

While Team Alpha was making their way to their starting point, Midoriya could already feel the tension in his nerves rising. In his heart, he knew that he wasn't suited for a leadership position. Teamwork was always one of the biggest critiques that Aizawa had for him. On top of that, he still didn't know how most of his new classmates felt about him.

Switching classes was a fresh start for him. And he wasn't about to blow it like he did back in 1-A. This time around, he was going to make an effort to work with his classmates. Which meant that he needed to involve everyone instead of just taking the brunt of the work. The point of this exercise was improvement for the students as a whole, not just to win.

"So what's our strategy Midoriya-san, gero?" Asui asked Midoriya. Her never changing expression still made him a bit uncomfortable.

"Huh?"

"Yeah team captain, what are we gonna do?" Kaibara immediately followed up.

Midoriya hesitated for a moment before giving an awkward grin and scratching his cheek. "I-I was actually hoping to see what you guys wanted to do."

"That's nice and all, but we all know that you're a genius when it comes to this kind of stuff." Komori said.

"I w-wouldn't say all that." He waved off.

"Either way, you're in charge. So tell us what the plan is."

"It's alright, Izuku." Kendou placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder. She could practically feel the nervousness radiating off of his body.

Midoriya looked around the group for a second and started thinking. He's already memorized pretty much everyone's quirks, and their team had a lot of different combinations that could possibly work. But he would have to be smart and take the other team's abilities into account.

"Okay...I have a few ideas that I wanted to run by you guys."

* * *

"Alright...let's just address the big green elephant in the room. What the fuck are we going to do about Midoriya? The guy's practically a one man army." Awase said, voicing pretty much everyone else's thoughts.

"I'd hate to admit it, but Awase is right. Wonderboy can solo our entire team if he wanted to." Tokage agreed.

"Midoriya's scary." Yanagi whispered.

"That's exactly why Kan-sensei made him a captain. The teachers want to see how well he can do in a situation like this. But don't worry, I have a surefire plan already cooked up." Honenuki said with a grin.

"Please enlighten us, team captain."

"Alright, check this out…"

* * *

Back on the observation deck, the teachers were watching with rapt attention. At one point, even Nezu and Yagi showed up to see how things were coming along. They were curious as to how all of this was going to play out. The new Class 1-B had an interesting dynamic and they couldn't wait to see how both groups would handle this.

"This will certainly be interesting to watch."

"I see you've made Midoriya and Honenuki the captains. Would you care to fill us all in?" Nezu asked Kan.

"If he wanted to, Midoriya could run the entire board...maybe with the exception of Honenuki. Having him as the leader will force him to reel it in, instead of just handling it all by himself. On the flipside, Honenuki is great at thinking on the fly and adjusting strategies in the moment. However, the more pieces that he has to work with the sloppier he gets. Come exam day, I predict that these two will be leading the pack." The white haired man explained.

"I see."

"It will certainly be entertaining."

* * *

**"Begin!"** The voice of Kan echoed through the speakers system.

Back with Team Bravo, they wasted no time in putting their strategy into effect. As directed by Honenuki, everyone held in place while Tokage detached one of her eyes to get a view of the battlefield in front of them. It only took a few seconds before she could see Midoriya quickly approaching their location in the distance.

"Wonderboy's on the move, and he's by himself."

"Just as I thought." Honenuki grinned. "Alright, everyone split into your teams and move out. Tokage-san, Nirengeki, let's go take this guy out!"

The rest of Team Bravo nodded before heading out. Jiro and Tetsutetsu went to the highest building that they could find. Bondo and Aoyama made their way down the connecting street. And Kamari, Yanagi and Awase ran off in the opposite direction.

* * *

As Midoriya continued jumping from rooftop to rooftop, he did his best to make sure that he was in plain view of the other team. The plan for his group was simple, but it entirely depended on how Honenuki's team would react to seeing his approach. Unfortunately, they weren't given earpieces at the start of the exercise so he had no idea how the others were going to handle things. He would just have to trust that everyone would do their job.

About two hundred meters away from Team Bravo's starting point Midoriya was suddenly hit from below in multiple areas. He quickly recovered just in time to see pieces of Tokage's body circling back around towards him. From what he could immediately identify, there were only fifteen pieces that he could see. Which meant that the rest of her was not too far behind. He dropped back onto the ground to give himself some stable footing. But almost immediately after his toe touched the asphalt, the second wave of her assault hit him from behind.

"I still owe you for beating me in our last fight!" Tokage's head taunted him from above.

Midoriya was quick to act and sent a low powered "Delaware Smash" in her direction, but she was quick enough to move her head out the way. He was about to try another attack, but the sight of more pieces flying towards him from the right caused him to adjust fire and jump onto the nearby railing.

"You're right arm's still busted up, right? Sorry about this, but I need to assert my dominance!"

Midoriya wanted to comment on that, but didn't get a chance thanks to another wave of her attack hitting him from behind. He thought about using an "Oklahoma Smash" like he did the last time they fought, but she was far too spread out. Plus, the move would leave him disoriented for a few seconds. Instead, he powered up his _'Full Cowling'_ to ten percent and jumped with the hopes grabbing her head and capturing her.

Just as he was about six meters away from securing his target, an invisible yet powerful force struck him from all directions. It was enough to alter his flight path and he zoomed by Tokage who was sporting a smile on her face.

Midoriya was able to recover just before landing on top of a nearby building. Looking around, he didn't see anyone else. But he certainly felt the same force from before impacting him on his chest, knocking him to the ground.

"Hell yeah, Shoda! That's what I'm talking about!" Tokage howeled from the sky above towards her teammate.

Midoriya quickly whipped his head around to see Nirengeki Shoda standing on top of a low platform in the distance.

_'His quirk let's him duplicate impacts at will. And with Tokage-san's quirk, all she has to do is hit me as hard as she can and let him do the rest.'_ Midoriya thought to himself. He quickly weighed his options on what he should do. Tokage was very mobile with her quirk, so dealing with her would have to wait. The biggest threat right now was Shoda.

The quirk inheritor wasted no time in dashing over towards the blue haired boy. But just before he could get on top of him another wave of Tokage's body cut him off. If he had any chance of coming out of this the victor, he now needed to avoid taking any more hits.

Tokage didn't give him enough time to think as she sent a wave of about twenty pieces his way. Midoirya was doing his best to duck and dodge as many of her attacks as he could, but every now and then a random piece would make contact. And the effect of Shoda's quirk immediately followed.

Midoriya made the decision to retreat in that moment and find a spot to regroup. But Tokage was doing well in staying on his tail. He had no idea what the effective range of Shoda's quirk was, but he wasn't about to stick around and find out. And he didn't know where anyone else was so he needed to save energy.

* * *

"This is a pretty smart strategy. Having Tokage and Shoda team up like that would be a problem for anyone." Sniped said from his spot on the observation deck.

"Indeed, but I have a feeling that the second part of their plan is about to begin." Nezu smiled.

"What do you mean, sir?"

"You'll see."

* * *

Meanwhile, with Kaminari, Yanagi and Awase. The three of them were running around in hopes of trying to find someone to capture. Since none of their quirks were really reliable in a one-on-one fight unless the situation was favorable, their group was put together to increase their chances of survival.

"It's weird how we haven't seen anyone else yet." Kaminari said to the other two.

"The other team probably split up like we did." Awase replied.

"Yeah."

"No worries, the three of us can handle this. I know our quirks aren't really compatible but-"

Just before Kaminari could finish that statement, a slurry of crashing sounds right above them halted their movements. The three of them looked up to see a few giant boulders right behind where they just were.

"What the fuck?!" Awase shouted.

"From above?"

Just then, another wave of giant rocks hit the exact same spot and the three of them began sprinting down the street.

"Bail!" Kaminari screamed while holding his arms over his head to avoid getting hit. Awase and Yanagi were quick to follow his lead.

* * *

Back with Midoriya, he was still on the run from Tokage and Shoda. He assumed that he should've been well outside the range of _'Twin Impact'_ by now based on the lack of recoil that the green haired girl's attacks were having, but he had a strange feeling in his stomach. So far, all of Tokage's attacks came from either above him or from his right side. Keeping him pinned to the ground and going after his weak spot was a smart move, but her attack pattern was very particular.

_'Is she leading me somewhere?'_ Midoriya realized only a second too late. Tokage decided that now was the time to make her move and wrapped a few of her pieces around Midoriya's eyes to cut off his vision. As luck would have it, this happened right as he was about to jump onto another low platform and he went crashing into the nearby wall.

Midoriya tried to claw her body off of him before he hit the ground. However when he reached the street, instead of feeling the loving embrace of concrete what he got was a soft and slimy sensation of what felt like mud. His body recognized the feeling and only one person he knew of had a quirk with this effect. 'Honenuki-san'.

As his body began to slowly sink into the ground, Tokage released her quirk around his eyes allowing him to see again. The light temporarily blinded him before his vision refocused in front of him. And sure enough, Honenuki was standing on the other end of the road.

"How do you like that, Wonderboy?!" Tokage began cackling while putting herself back together.

"To be honest, I thought this plan had a 25/75 percent chance of working. But I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth." Honenuki taunted him before jumping into the newly created mud. _'I'll let him sink a bit further before putting the capture tape around him.'_

* * *

"They've got him now." Midnight said with an impressed grin on her face.

"It certainly looks that way."

* * *

As he descended further and further into the ground, Midoriya was starting to panic. There was nothing for him to try and grab on to and trying a "New Hampshire Smash" would be meaningless with the lack of solid ground. He was now almost neck deep into the mud and he knew that he had been outplayed. Out of sheer desperation he reached his still exposed right arm to the sky before his head dipped below the surface.

"Hell yeah! We actually got him!" Tokage let out a cheer.

Juzo was making his approach to secure Midoriya with the capture tape, but what happened next surprised both the students and the teachers watching.

***Thwap!***

Out of nowhere, a tendril of black energy shot out of the mud from Midoriya's hand and latched onto a railing about fifty meters away. Tokage watched as the green haired boy's previously submerged body jetted out of the ground at ridiculous speed. The only thing she noticed as he zipped past her was that his usually green electricity was now red.

Midoriya was able to get his bearings just in time for the newly formed tendril of _'black whip'_ to disappear right before landing on the ground at the opposite end of the street. He immediately looked down at his body only to see the red electricity quickly shift back to green.

The three students then paused and gawked at one another trying to ascertain what had just happened.

* * *

"That must've been what Aizawa was talking about." Said Kan.

"I've never seen Midoriya do that before. Is this a new ultimate move?"

"That was way different than what he usually does. If I didn't know any better, I'd say it was a different quirk entirely."

_'Young Izuku told me about this 'black whip', but he said that he wasn't able to call upon it ever since the camp.'_ Yagi silently pondered. He was still having difficulty wrapping his head around this part of 'One for All'. But seeing it in action was definitely a sight to behold.

"Let's see what the three of them do."

* * *

_'That was 'black whip' just now. Did I do that? And why did my electricity change color?'_ Midoriya's thoughts began racing.

"Okay timeout." Tokage put her hands into a "T" shape. "What the fuck was that, Wonderboy?"

"Since when do you have two quirks?" Honenuki inquired.

Midoriya wanted to respond, but decided against it. Instead he powered up his _'Full Cowling'_ to sixteen percent and jetted off in the other direction. An explanation would have to wait for later, for now they still needed to win this match. Honenuki and Tokage were too much of a problem to deal with right now, but Shoda was still by himself.

"Shit! Juzo what are we gonna do?"

"We have to hurry and get to Nirengeki. Midoriya-san is going after him. Damn, this was my only plan to deal with him."

This proved to be useless though as Midoriya was quickly on top of Shoda. All the blue haired boy saw was a blur of green pass by him before the capture tape suddenly appeared around his wrists.

**"Nirengeki Shoda is unable to continue!"**

"I apologize, Shoda-san." Midoriya said to his new blue haired classmate.

All Nirengeki could go was let out a defeated sigh. "It's fine. I take it Juzo's plan was a bust?"

"S-something like that."

"Figures."

* * *

"You doing alright, Yui?" Kendou asked Kodai as she crushed more pieces of concrete in her hands. The two of them along with Shoji were perched atop of a small building surrounded by heavy railing from all sides.

"Hmm." The black haired girl simply nodded. Placing her hands over the pile of newly crushed rocks in Kendou's enlarged hand.

"How are we doing, Shoji-san?" Kendou asked her masked classmate.

"I still can't tell exactly who it is. But they definitely stopped moving for now. Try to avoid hitting the same area if you can, we need to limit property damage."

"I agree, but it's hard to aim with so many small pieces."

"I understand."

"Alright, round four here we go!" Kendou shouted with a bit of a smile as she flung the rocks in the same direction as her targets. "Yui, now!"

"Hmm." Kodai nodded while activating her quirk. What were previously small bits of rubble suddenly expanded into large, human sized boulders that impacted the top of the building near Kaminari's group.

Kendou felt pretty satisfied with that throw. Her first couple of attempts were all over the place, but now she was dialing in. She never really like causing random acts of destruction, but she will admit that she was starting to have a bit of fun. Before Kendou could prepare another fist full of crushed cement, their team captain suddenly appeared right next to them.

"Izuku." Kendou said when she finally noticed him.

"Sorry, for taking so long. I was only able to take out Shoda-san. Tokage-san and Honenuki-san almost got me."

"Seriously?" Kendou and Shoji's eyes widen at his words. Even Kodai's usually emotionless face made a slight shift with surprise.

"How?"

"I'll tell you in a minute. How you guys doing?"

"We have three of them pinned down, Kinoko and Fukidashi-kun should be in position."

"Alright, wait another minute before your next attack. I'll head over to where they are and tell them the plan is plan is a go."

"No problem." Kendou said with a couple of affirming nods from Shoji and Kodai. Midoriya also nodded before activating his quirk and heading down to join his teammates.

"Y'know, having him on our side is kind of reassuring." Shoji simply said.

As far as he was concerned, he never had a problem with Midoriya. Even though most of 1-A never liked his attitude, he could somewhat sympathize with just being a quiet person. Shoji was aware of what happened back at the camp and couldn't really fault Midoriya for his actions since he was under the control of someone else's quirk.

"You got that right."

* * *

About twenty seconds later, Midoriya quietly dropped onto the ground right behind Fukidashi and Komori. They were about seventy meters away from Kaminari's group who were now all hiding out under some metal pipes. Awase looked like he was doing something with his quirk, but he couldn't tell from that far away.

"Are you two alright?" Midoriya asked his two classmates with a tap on the shoulder.

Komori let out a quiet yelp before turning around to face him. "Midoriya-kun, you _mushn't_ scare me like that!"

"S-sorry." He quickly apologized.

"We're ready to go." The thought bubble that was Fukidashi's face read.

"Good, Kendou's team is going to lay down one more attack. After that, you're good to capture those three."

"Sweet." Komori gave a thumbs up.

"I'll be here to back you up."

Sure enough, a few seconds later the next wave of Kendou and Kodai's combined attack came raining down on their position.

"There it is."

"Fukidashi-san!" Midoriya half-shouted to the comic quirk user.

Fukidashi quickly stood up and activated his quirk. **"JIMEJIME!"** He yelled, materializing a giant word wall that cut off Yanagi, Awase and Kaminari's retreat. The air around them suddenly grew thick and humid.

"What the hell?" Kaminari looked to his classmates.

"It's Mang- ack!" Awase's words were cut short when he felt a lump suddenly appear in his in his windpipe. _'My throat!'_

_'What the hell? I can barely breath!'_ Kaminari wondered while clutching his neck.

The three students dropped to their knees and began searching around. What caught their attention was Komori casually strolling out from beyond a corner while sporting a slightly unnerving smile on her face. "Midoriya-kun!"

"On it!" The green haired boy's voice responded before a green blur appeared in their vision. In the blink of an eye, their feet were bound by capture tape and that let them know that they had just been bested.

**"Denki Kaminari, Reiko Yanagi and Yosetsu Awase are unable to continue."**

**"Sen Kaibara and Ibara Shiozaki are also unable to continue."**

* * *

"I see, Fukidashi augmented Komori's quirk by humidifying the air. Smart."

"A good combination of quirks that's effective over a large area." The rest of the teachers nodded in agreement.

* * *

"Damn, this sucks." Tokage whined. At the moment, her and Honenuki were running around over to where their closest teammates were supposed to be. They were too slow to help out Shoda, but they still had the others to worry about.

"Get to the sky and start scouting out the others. Jiro-san and Tetsutetsu should still be in their spot." Honenuki ordered.

"Got it." Tokage nodded as she split her body up above the training ground.

* * *

Back on their position on the small tower they found shortly after starting, Jiro and Tetsutetsu were sitting in place. Jiro was meant to scout out as big of an area as she could, while Tetsutetsu's job was to play defense and watch her back.

"Damn, that's four of us already." Tetsutetsu clicked his teeth at Kan's announcement.

"I think Aoyama and Bondo were the ones who got Shiozaki. I saw his laser shooting off in the distance." Jiro said.

"This sucks!" The silver haired boy whined.

Before she could agree, Jiro heard footsteps coming from the other side of the building. It was only one person that she could tell, but had no clue who it was.

"Quiet down, someone's coming."

"Who?" Tetsutetsu whisper-shouted.

"I can't say."

Jiro detached her earphone jack and the two of them got into their stances, standing back-to-back with one another. There was a brief pause before Rin suddenly popped up while simultaneously shooting a wave of scales from the other side of the rooftop. If it wasn't for the fact that she was facing that direction, Jiro wouldn't have noticed in time.

"Behind you!" The pruple haired girl quickly ducked.

Tetsutetsu was able to react just in time to activate his quirk, forcing the scales to hit him and drop to the ground.

"Dammit, Rin! I thought you were above sneak attacks!" Tetsu shouted to the Chinese exchange student.

"Sorry man." Rin quickly apologized before sending out another attack.

Jiro was about to send a sound wave at him, but in that moment she felt something slimy grab onto her waist. Hooking both of her arms at the same time.

"Tsu?" Jiro looked to her right, only to see Asui with her tongue fully extended out of her mouth.

"Sorry, gero." The frog themed student apologize before pulling the purple haired girl towards her. Her capture tape already in hand.

While Jiro was rocketing towards her defeat, she barely had enough time to stick her left earphone jack into Asui's tongue and activate her quirk. The force of the vibration was enough to momentarily stun the girl and drop Jiro onto the ground. Not one to miss a chance, Jiro plugged her jack into her left boot and sent a soundwave at the girl. With Asui completely disoriented, Jiro ran up to her and wrapped both of her wrists in the capture tape.

At the same time, Tetsutetsu charged at Rin and was able to hold up long enough to tackle him to the ground. The two boys got into a brief grappling match before Tetsutetsu overpowered his classmate and wrapped his capture tape around Rin's feet.

**"Tsuyu Asui and Hiriyu Rin are unable to continue."** Kan announced over the loudspeaker.

"Sorry about that Tsu." Jiro offered a hand to help the girl up from off the ground.

"It's fine, gero. We thought a quick attack would be enough to get you guys." Asui blunty responded.

"You alright, Rin?" Tetsu asked as also he helped the _'scale'_ quirk user off the ground.

"Yeah..."

* * *

_'Alright, things are all even.'_ Tokage let out a quick sigh before rotating her head around to the other side of the area. _'And look who have over there.'_ She smiled once she saw Kendou's group in the distance, out in the open.

The green haired girl quickly got back to Honenuki's side to tell him what she saw. "Itsuka, Yui and Shoji are all together. The two of us should be able to handle it."

"Sounds like a plan, we better hurry up befor-"

**"Kojiro Bondo and Yuga Aoyama are unable to continue. Team Alpha is the victor! Everyone return to the observation deck. And someone please go help Shiozaki and Kaibara."** Kan announced just before Honenuki could finish his sentence.

"Damn, so close." The ashen skin teen cursed with a clenched fist.

"Hey, we did a lot better than what we thought." Tokage gave him a sympathetic shrug.

"Yeah...I guess you're right."

* * *

It didn't take long for the 1-B students to gather up at the observation deck. Everyone looked alright for the most part. Except for Shizozaki and Kaibara. The boy was missing both of his shoes for some reason and Shiozaki had a good chunk of glue in her vines that everyone assumed must've been Bondo's handiwork.

"Excellent work out there, all of you. You guys did a fantastic job at working as a team and finding new and creative ways to use your quirks. I hope you all take what you experienced out there today and use it to work on your new ultimate moves." Kan told his students with a satisfied smile on his face.

"Thank you, sensei." The students echoed in unison.

"Now, let's take a moment to review a few things that we noticed during the exercise. Midoriya…"

The green haired boy quietly gulped at hearing his name called out. Did he make a mistake out there that he wasn't aware of? Was he going to get reprimanded? He still had no clue what Kan's teaching style was like. When it came to Aizawa, he only ever singled anyone out to people that did exceptionally bad. "Y-Yes sensei?"

"At the start of the exercise you went off on your own instead of teaming up with another classmate. Care to explain why?"

"Um…" Midoriya hesitated as he tried to find the right words.

"That was a decision made by the group." Kendou spoke up in Midoriya's place. "Izuku's job was to scout ahead and get a feel for the area. Since he's the fastest and had the lowest chance of getting captured, we decided that it would be best if he played a more mobile position. On top of that, we thought that he could possibly capture a few of our opponents along the way. But he was the one who split us up into our teams and came up with our attack strategies." The orange haired girl explained before turning her head and giving Midoriya a reassuring grin.

"I see…" Kan rubbed a hand to his chin with an approving nod. "Good job on coming to that conclusion as a group."

"Now, Team Bravo. Honenuki, your plan to try and capture Midoriya was a good one. I'm pretty sure it would've worked if he hadn't used that new move of his. But after that fell through, things kind of fell apart on you."

"Yes sensei, I'll admit that I put too much priority into capturing Midoriya-san since he was the biggest threat. But after our plan failed, I couldn't decide on what to do. On top of that, since we didn't have a way to communicate with the rest of our teammates I wasted time trying to figure out where to go." Was the ashen skin teen's reply.

"That's a pretty good self assessment. Once the provisional license exams are over and done with, we'll be doing more exercises with you students acting as leaders. Take what you learned here today and apply as best you can. That's pretty much all I have to say. Do you any of the other teachers have any input?" Kan looked to the rest of the pro heroes.

Everyone nodded their heads to the side with the exception of Yagi. Who this whole time was giving Midoriya a curious look. "I need to speak with young Midoriya once we're done here."

"Yes sensei." The 'One for All' user nodded.

"Alright, you lot are dismissed for the rest of the day. We'll be meeting in the TDL tomorrow afternoon at twelve o'clock. Don't be late."

"Yes sir!" The students all bowed before heading out. Glad that they now had the rest of their day to do whatever they wanted.

* * *

A few hours after the class was released from training, Kendou found herself chilling on her bed in her room. She hadn't seen Midoriya since Yagi called him out to speak with him and she was starting to get a bit worried. Kendou was certain that it wasn't anything bad, but with Midoriya you knew really knew what was going on.

On top of that she just wanted to talk to him. Sure it had only really been a day, but she barely saw him since moving into the dorms. He no doubt was still feeling a bit of stress thanks to what happened back at camp, and she didn't like the idea of him being alone for obvious reasons.

Kendou quickly decided to just suck it up and send him a text to see if he wanted to hangout whenever he got back. Nothing crazy, maybe just heading down to one of the training rooms for a sparring session. But just as she was about to open up her contacts list, she heard a knock at the door.

The orange haired girl got up and wasted no time in seeing who it could've been. To her surprise, it was Tokage, Jiro, Shiozaki and Komori standing there with satisfied grins on their faces. The later holding a tub of ice cream that was way too much for one person to eat alone.

"Um...what are you guys doing here?" Kendou asked, even though she already had a good feeling about the reason.

"We're having a committee meeting." Tokage responded.

"Committee?"

"Yeah, the "Get one of you dorks to ask the other one out" comittee."

Kendou let out a groan and drug her hand across her face. "It's too early in the day for this."

"Which means that there's ample time for us to get started." The _'lizard tail splitter_' user said with a toothy grin. "So are you gonna let us in or are you just going to let Koko's ice cream melt?"

"This was all her idea by the way." Jiro spoke up.

"Whatever." Kendou relented while making space for them to enter.

The five girls gathered around into a circle on the floor and made themselves comfortable. All except for Kendou who chose to sit on her bed because this was her room after all.

"Alright, let's hear it." Kendou started.

"It's so nice to see that you're on board with this."

"Just tell me what hair brained scheme you have cooked up this time."

"Your first official date!" Tokage announced with one hand on her hip and a fist in the air. "We've been brainstorming and we have four possibilities for you to choose from. You have the option of either the amusement park, a concert, a nice day at the beach, or my personal favorite...karaoke."

"Karaoke?" Kendou blinked a couple of times.

"Yeah, neither of you are the musically inclined type. So you can spend the entire time embarrassing yourselves all while serenading each other."

_'Did she seriously just say "serenading"?'_ The thoughts of the rest of the girls echoed.

"I thought bowling was a good idea, but that was rejected." Shiozaki added with a sharp glance in Tokage's direction.

"Because bowling is boring!" Tokage shot back.

"So...these are my choices, huh?" Kendou tapped a finger to her chin.

Neither option was necessarily a bad idea. They all had their benefits, but they also had their downsides.

She definitely wasn't going to agree to karaoke, she was practically tone deaf and the last thing she wanted to do was embarrass herself in front of her crush. The amusement park was certainly a good one, however the thought of waiting in line for hours along with the guarantee of nothing but fried food and the blistering summer air quickly shot that down. The beach was also a possible option, but she sure as hell wasn't comfortable with Midoriya seeing her in a swimsuit right now. On top of that, it would run the risk of people having to see his scars. That option definitely wasn't Jiro's idea. All of this thinking left one more option on the table...

"Let's go with the concert." Kendou announced.

"Why that one?" Komori asked, she was really hoping that Kendou was going to agree with her beach idea.

"It's entertaining and it'll leave less room for awkward moments. Plus, I've never been to one before."

"A smart choice." Jiro nodded in agreement. Glad that her option was the preferred choice.

"So when is it?"

"Saturday after next, a few days after the provisional license test."

"Alright, it's decided!" Tokage clapped her hands together. "Kyoka's parents are performing that night so she was able to snag us front row tickets, and a couple of backstage passes to boot. After that you two can head out to get dinner and we're good!"

The reality of the situation quickly set in for Kendou. She was really about to go through with this, her first real date. She didn't know whether to feel excited or nervous. "Wow...we're really doing this aren't we?"

"Hell yeah we are! Oh, and you have until the day after the exam to ask him out." Tokage told her.

"What, why?"

"Because we need to focus on getting our licenses right now, duh~."

"And if I refuse?"

Instead of a verbal response, Tokage pulled out her phone and unlocked it. Turning the screen towards Kendou to reveal a certain picture of her in the locker room after one of her training sessions against Bondo at the start of the year.

"I-I thought you said that you deleted that?!" A now red faced Kendou shouted as she tried to grab the device away from her.

"I did...off of my phone. This one is in my email." The green haired girl gave her a toothy grin.

Kendou hunched over in her seat and began massaging her temples with the hope of quelling the headache that she was already starting to feel. "Why exactly are you my best friend again?"

"Because I'm awesome. Now that we have everything sorted out, there's a tub of mint chocolate chip with our names on it!"

* * *

Later that afternoon, Midoriya finally returned from his talk with all might. The two of them had spent the last few hours trying to get him to call upon _'black whip'_ again, but it was to no avail. They decided to call it a day and save it for another time.

When Midoriya finally got back into his room, he wasted no time in flopping down onto his bed for some much needed rest and relaxation. But the moment his back hit the mattress, he felt something strange underneath his red, white and blue comforter. Immediately he pulled the sheet back and his heart almost stopped when he saw what the obstruction was.

"What the hell?!"

A bra...it was a bra. There was a black bra just sitting there on his bed. So much confusion hit the green haired boy at one time that he almost fainted right there on the spot. What was it doing there? Who's was it? Was he in the right room? Did someone come in there while he was gone? Just then he noticed a folded up sheet of paper sitting next to the piece of underwear and reluctantly picked up to see what it was.

_"Dear Wonderboy, _

_I decided to leave you a little gift as a congratulations for beating me today in training. Think of it as a token of my respect. Now all you have to do is figure out whether or not it's mine or Itsuka's. Good luck._

_Sincerely, your friendly neighborhood Lizardy._

_P.S. You might want to find a way to return that before someone notices. ;-D"_

Midoriya's mind began running wild with a myriad of thoughts. But there was one question on his mind that he couldn't figure out. Just how the hell did Tokage get into his room? His door was definitely locked when he came in, so she couldn't have gone through there. He looked around for a bit before noticing that his bedroom window was flung all the way open, just like he left it before leaving that morning.

"I seriously need to make sure that I start locking this place up before I leave…."

* * *

**Author's Notes: The Midoriya vs Honenuki saga continues. And the winner of this round is...plot armor! Sorry, but I just couldn't resist having 'black whip' make an appearance. In my opinion I kinda count this as a win for Honenuki, but these two will have more showdowns in the future. **

**1\. The first day of training for the new Class 1-B went pretty well, right? Don't expect more elaborate battle sequences like that in the future. I just wanted to give everyone a moment in the spotlight to the best of my ability. 1-B hasn't really been shown a lot of love in the manga. Plus I started going crazy with the possible team combinations that the new class could use in the future. **

**2\. What do you guys think of the concert idea as Midoriya and Kendou's first date? It's pretty out there, but it's definitely in the realm of possibility for Jiro to get some tickets to a show and it's a bit out of their comfort zones. I have the outline of that almost done and I hope you guys enjoy what I have in store.**

**3\. I'm still 50/50 on whether or not I want to write out the entire provisional license exam, but if you guys want to see it then I'll do my best to make it work. **

**4\. Just for clarification, Midnight is not Tokage's actual aunt. If you look on the BNHA wiki, they're both from the same city. Plus their personalities are similar enough to where I thought: "Yeah, that kinda makes sense." I also already mentioned that Tokage got her recommendation to U.A. from Midnight so it's not completely out of left field.**

**5\. Someone brought this up to me in my PM's so I wanted to ask you guys. Should Kendou have a "rival" in this story too? I know that spot is usually reserved for Yaoyorozu, but obviously that's not going to happen since she's on Aizawa's list of "problem children" now. I don't really care about it that much since it's not a big deal for the story, but if it's something that you guys want to see, I'll try to squeeze it in. Who do you guys think that should be?**

**6\. We're going to get a few brief looks into how 1-A is doing, but not a lot. There's only one real Bakugou-related moment that I want to have happen that will be coming up soon. **

**As always, thank you guys for reading and don't be afraid to drop a review. This was also my longest chapter ever in any fic so I guess that accounts for something. **


	30. Get Ready For Those Licenses!

_"You can't be a hero, Deku!"_

_"You're quirkless, you might as well just give up."_

_"I thought you would've learned your lesson by now."_

_"You seriously don't have a quirk? Wow, you really are useless."_

"Shit!" Midoriya shouted, launching himself up from his bed. The sweat was dripping down his body and his hair was stuck to his forehead. It had been a while since he had a nightmare like that. In fact, he couldn't even remember the last time it happened. The boy quickly regained himself as he threw his feet over the side of his new bed, stretching his arm towards the ceiling. He still had a few hours before training was set to begin.

* * *

That afternoon, the students of 1-B had just made their way into the TDL. When they finally walked into the building, they were met with the sight of the students of 1-A hard at work with their own training. The place was a buzz of random crashes and explosions from different ends of the gym.

"Aizawa, you do know that your time is almost up, right?" Kan told his black haired coworker.

A very tired looking Aizawa glanced at him before letting out what the students of the old 1-A recognized as an annoyed groan. "We were just about to finish up. Besides, we still have ten whole minutes left before we need to leave."

Out of nowhere, everyone's favorite copy quirk user, Neito Monoma, decided to use this opportunity to taunt his new rival class. "Hey 1-B scrubs, did you hear? The licensing exam has a fifty percent pass rate. That means your entire class could fail!" The blond haired boy began cackling like a madman.

_'He certainly flipped the script didn't he?'_ Everyone's thoughts echoed.

"Monoma's observations are correct. There is a possibility that we'll have to come to battle if we partake in the same exam. That appears to be the hand that fate has dealt us." Tokayami added from his spot perched atop low a concrete pillar.

"That is why our classes will be in different testing locations." Aizawa added.

"Each school has at most one class in a single location. So you _won't_ be going up against each other."

"How sad~. We won't be able to face each other directly. You losers won't get the see the superior might of Class 1-A!" Monoma cheered, although a few students swore that he let out a small sigh of relief.

"In anycase Vlad is right. Uraraka!" Aizawa called out to the brunette currently floating above their heads.

"Y-yes, sensei!" She quickly answered.

"Have everybody meet me in the dorms an hour after you get back, there's a few things that I need to discuss with you all."

"Right." The girl nodded.

"That's weird." Midoriya slightly whispered. Why did Aizawa tell her that?

"Oh, that's right. You don't know, do you?" Jiro answered his silent question.

"Huh?"

"Ochako and Toru are the new class rep and vice-rep."

"Seriously?" Midoriya's eyes slightly widened at hearing that.

"Yeah, Aizawa-sensei had them change because of...you know what."

"Oh."

As class 1-A finished up their training, a few of the students decided to mingle and catch up with their former classmates. Todoroki and Tokoyami were rather quick to come to Midoriya and Jiro's side.

During this time, Midoriya had a strange feeling coming from the back of his head. The green haired boy turned around only to see none other than Bakugou. The ashe blonde was boring a hole into his head with his gaze and he could practically feel the hatred radiating off of the boy's body.

But what unnerved Midoriya the most about this undeniably awkward situation wasn't Bakugou, it was himself. The longer he looked at him, the more intense the buzzing feeling in the back of his head seemed to get. On top of that, there was a tingling sensation shooting up the entirety of his right arm. He had no idea how to really describe it, but for some reason that he himself didn't know, this was a familiar feeling.

Midoriya knew that there wasn't anything he could say that could assuage Bakugou's newly augmented anger with him. So for the time being, he just ignored it and pretended like he wasn't there.

"Sup guys." Jiro gave the two boys a quick nod.

"Greetings."

"How's 1-A been doing so far?"

"Getting used to the new class dynamic has been...interesting." Tokoyami responded.

"I wouldn't doubt it."

"It's been more of the same for the most part." Todorki dryly answered before he sent a curious gaze to Midoriya. "What about you?"

"Y-yeah it's going great, I'm glad to see that Aizawa-sensei didn't expel you guys."

"I see. We were lucky not to get expelled, but Eraserhead isn't letting the five of us take the licensing exam."

"Oh." Was all that Midoriya could muster up to say in response. With the five of them not participating, that would mean that 1-A's firepower was drastically reduced.

"I guess we'll see you guys later." Jiro said as the rest of their class began filing out of the building.

"Yes. And Midoriya..." The heterochromatic teen glanced back at him. "I still think that we need to have a talk about _that_."

"It's okay." The green haired boy waved off. "The principal and the teachers already know."

The two boys shared a silent gaze with one another for a few seconds. Todoroki would admit that he was somewhat annoyed at hearing that. If the faculty were now truly aware of the situation between Midoriya and Bakugou, then that would mean that they haven't done anything about it yet. He had noticed that Bakugou was drastically less vocal over the last couple of days, but he was curious as to whether or not their history had been addressed to him in particular.

"We will see you guys later then. Have a good day."

"You too."

* * *

With class 1-A now gone, the students of 1-B made their way into the TDL to get started. Overall, the class was having a good time letting their quirks run wild while trying out their new moves. Well, everyone except for Kendou.

In all honesty, she was having trouble coming up with a new ultimate move. When it came to her quirk, there really just wasn't a whole lot that she could do with it. It was just too straight forward. So far, the only thing that she had been able to think of was the move she used on the 'Hero Killer' back at the camp. Even then, Midoriya was the one who suggested it and she was nowhere near as creative as he was.

It wasn't even like she could alter just how big her hands got at will. There were a few times that she remembered when she could only get them to about half of their maximum size. But that pretty much stopped when she was still a kid and finally got used to her quirk.

Hoping that the other members of her class could give her some type of inspiration, Kendou decided to walk around for a bit to see what everyone else was doing. After a few minutes, she made her way over to Midoriya. At the moment, the boy was firing off air blasts at a few targets that Cementoss had put up, turning them into rubble. But when she was only a few meters away from him, Kendou noticed the rather distraught look on his face.

"What's wrong, Izuku?" Kendou asked him.

"O-oh, hey Itsuka. Um well...I'm still having trouble getting used to not being able to use my right arm." Midoriya replied with a slight tinge of pink on his cheeks. Awkwardly rubbing the back of his head.

"Oh yeah, you did say that you can't use any of your smashes because of the damage." The _'big fist'_ user responded. Judging from how bad his arm looked that night, Kendou was surprised that he could still even move it.

"Yeah. I'm still trying to figure out how to use _'black whip'_, but I don't think it will be reliable until I have full control over it."

"Yeah, that could be a problem. All of your moves come from your arms."

"Yeah." Midoriya simply said.

There was a brief moment of silence between the two of them as they thought about any possible avenues of approach. Kendou found it sort of ironic that she was giving assistance to someone that she thought would be able to help her out. But she had no problem in lending aid her classmates. After about a minute, the lightbulb went off over Kendou's head.

"Have you ever tried using your legs?" The orange haired girl suggested.

In fact, Midoriya had tried using leg smashes a couple of times before. But the problem with that approach was that the bones in his feet weren't as durable as the ones in his legs. The last time he tried it, he broke three of his toes and a couple of metatarsals. Needless to say, Recovery Girl gave him and Yagi an earful that day.

"I have, but I never really felt a need to. Plus I didn't want to run the risk of using going overboard and end up breaking my foot or anything...again."

"That makes sense. I remember you saying that you constantly need to regulate your quirk's output. Misfiring with your arms is way less dangerous than with your legs."

"Yeah..."

"Why not just get Hatsume-san to make something similar to the new arm brace that you said she was making for you, except for your feet?"

"That's actually a good idea." Midoriya simply said. Truth be told he hadn't even considered that option.

"It should help. Your kicks are still pretty sloppy, so having the extra protection would be a good thing."

"Huh?"

Kendou had to stifle a bit of a laugh at the face that Midoriya gave her. "Not trying to be rude, but the last time we spared together you still telegraphed all of your kicks. They were real easy to read."

"You think so?"

"Yeah." She said while placing her hands on her hips. "Tell you what, why don't we work on it this afternoon after classes are over? Kan-sensei said that Midnight-sensei is going to hang back for those who want to get some extra practise time in. We could work on it then. Plus we haven't had a good sparring match in a while."

"You'd do that for me?" The boy asked, genuinely surprised at this.

"Of course! I _am_ a blackbelt in taekwondo and karate, I'm pretty sure I can straighten you out in no time if we focus on leg-centric movements." And it would be good excuse to actually spend some time together. Although Kendou wasn't about to admit that part out loud.

"I'd like that."

"Awesome! Maybe you could even help me work on _my_ super move while we're at it?"

"Deal!" The boy said with a wide grin. Kendou immediately felt her heart rate go up and the heat rise in her face at the action.

_'Damn that smile.'_

* * *

With barely a couple of hours into the afternoon, it didn't take long for the students of 1-B to get into the grove of training. For the most part, everyone was pushing themselves in order to develop new ultimate moves. The TDL was ripe with exhibitions of quirk related flair and numerous crashing sounds from the concrete targets being struck. The only exception was Midoriya, who at the moment, was watching his classmates do their best.

"What's the problem, Midoriya?" Kan asked the green haired boy as he approached his platform near the back of the gym.

"I-I'm still having trouble using my new move, sensei."

"Yes, that black tentacle thing you used during the exercise. To my knowledge you've only used it twice, correct?" The white haired man asked.

"Yeah...back at the camp and during training yesterday."

"I see." He nodded in understanding. "Tell me, what was so different about those times than now?"

"Well...the first time was when I was under the influence of that villain's quirk and last time was right before Honenuki-san sunk me during training."

"Hmm...so in one instance you were fueled by rage, the other you were overcome by duress."

"I guess so."

"So I guess that means this new power of yours is reactive to your emotions if anything."

The white haired man was right on the money, Midoriya thought. He remembered the dream he had back at the hospital with the previous wielder of 'One for All' who more or less told him the same thing. _'Black whip'_ was no doubt a versatile power, but the fact that his emotional state influenced it so much was an issue. When it came to his feelings, Midoriya was as out of touch with himself as anybody. If he wanted to use this new power, he needed to figure something out.

"Alright, how about this? I want you to focus on what makes you angry. And try aiming that quirk of yours at that target."

"Are you sure?" Midoriya looked up to his teacher.

"Yes, there's a fair bit of distance between us and everyone else so it should be safe."

"Alright." He nodded.

Midoriya was quick to turn his attention over to the concrete slab about ten meters in front of him and aimed both of his arms at it. While doing that he let his mind wander to a part of him that he honestly wished didn't exist. He spent the majority of his life avoiding getting angry for any reason. Heroes don't hold grudges or let their anger get the best of them after all.

"Try to focus." Kan told him while keeping a watchful eye.

As he tried to clear his mind and focus, a few things popped into his head. Unfortunately, the one recurring image he kept coming back to was Bakugou. He knew deep down inside he still hated the explosion quirk user for everything that he had done to him. And if the events of the camp had proven anything, it was that he wouldn't be able to hide those feelings no matter how hard he tried.

His mind quickly became a whirlpool of thoughts. All of the beatings that he had suffered, the mockery, the insults, all of the times that he was denied his dreams by those around him. All of this was coming together and he could feel his chest becoming tight.

From his spot a couple of meters away, Kan watched the familiar sight of green electricity erupting around Midoriya's body before shifting over to a choatic red. The pro hero would be lying if he said that he didn't take a small step back as the images of his student back at the camp pulled itself from his memory. But he quickly shook that away.

A few seconds later, Midoriya released his quirk and let out a heavy breath.

"I thought so. It seems like anger isn't enough." Kan rubbed a hand to his chin.

"If that won't help than what do you think can?" Midoriya asked the man.

The white haired hero paused for a moment as he reviewed his thoughts on the matter. Midoriya watched as the gears began to turn before a lightbulb went off over Kan's head. "Midoriya, have you ever heard of the hero Crimson Riot?" He asked the boy.

"Y-yeah. He was an older hero with a hardening quirk, right?"

"That's right, I use to intern under him while I was still a student at Ketsubutsu."

"That's amazing!" Midoriya excitedly blurted out. Crimson Riot may not have been incredibly famous, but from what he knew the hero was very well respected.

"Yeah, back when I was still a student, I had a similar problem with my quirk. The angrier I got, the less control I had over the blood I used." Kan explained.

"Really?"

"Yeah, there were more than a few times I lost my focus and things got out of hand."

"So what did you do to fix it?"

"Raioto-sensei used to tell me that the trick wasn't in suppressing my anger, but balancing my feelings when I used my quirk: _"True focus lies somewhere in between rage and serenity."_, is what he always said. It took a while for his words to stick, but eventually I figured out what he was trying to tell me."

"That does make sense."

"Absolutely! Tell you what, let's try this again. But this time I want to think about both what makes you angry _and_ what brings you joy."

"O-okay." Midoriya nodded.

A few seconds passed as Midoriya tried to organize his thoughts. To be honest, it was almost like trying to look left and right at the same time. His mind went back to the anger that he previously felt, and he could feel his quirk forcing its way to the surface.

But at the same time, he let his mind go to things that made him happy. The things that brought him joy.

The images of his days training to receive 'One for All' passed over his eyes. The time he spent sparring with Yagi and Sorahiko, the moments that he shared with his mother a few months after the day he jumped off the bridge.

There were even a few recent memories that made themselves known. He remembered standing in front of the crowd as Yagi placed his gold medal around his neck at the Sports Festival. The study sessions that he participated in with his friends. Even the end of semester exams where he finally was able to beat his predecessor.

The tight feeling in his chest slowly subsided and was replaced with more of a warm sensation. The red electricity surrounding him transitioned from uneven and violent, to smooth and controlled. Just before Kan was about to tell him to stop, the power of 'One for All' suddenly surged through Midoriya's right arm.

***Thwap!***

A tendril of _'balck whip'_ shot out from the boy's hand, quickly impacting the concrete wall in front of him. The sound of both his new quirk activating along with momentary contact was enough to draw everyone's attention away from what they were doing and onto him.

"I did it." Midoriya whispered just loud enough for his teacher to hear.

"Easier than what you though, huh?" Kan said, giving the boy an approving grin.

"Y-yeah."

"Good, we still have a lot of time left, so try working on that for the remainder of the afternoon."

"Yes sensei."

"Good job, Midoriya."

"Thank you." Midoriya gave the man a small bow, just before glancing back up at him. "Uh, Kan-sensei."

"Yes?"

"I never got a chance to say this, but I want to apologize for what happened back at the camp. I still can't remember everything that happened, but I know you got injured because I lost control. I'm sorry."

"Don't worry about it. None of that was your fault. In fact, I was pretty impressed when I finally woke up. That was the first time someone's managed to knock me out in years."

"Oh." Was all Midoriya could respond with as he watched his teacher walk away with a hearty laugh.

* * *

A few hours later, class 1-B was done with their mandatory training for the day. Everyone minus Midoriya, Kendou and Midnight had already gone back home to unwind for the rest of the afternoon. Once the gym was finally clear, the two students wasted no time getting right into their sparring match. The sounds of kicks and punches making contact resonated through the area as the duo did their best to get a leg up on the other.

Like she promised, Kendou was doing her part in teaching Midoriya proper form when it came to his kicks. He was getting the hang of it for the most part, except for a few slip up every now then. Which included Kendou throwing him to the ground more than a dozen times.

"You're really getting the hang of this." Kendou told Midoriya through heavy breaths, crouching back down into her fighting stance.

"Thanks." Midoriya replied, also getting into the new stance that Kendou taught him about half an hour prior.

The two of them continued on like this for another twenty minutes before the sound of the front door opening caught their attention. A bit to Kendou's surprise, the person that walked in was none other than Amajiki, who was dressed in his gym uniform while carrying a cardboard box labeled "Alligator Meat".

"Tamaki!" Kendu shouted from across the gym before approaching her long time neighbor.

"Hey Itsuka." The boy bashfully greeted.

"What are you guy doing here?"

"We have the TDL reserved for part of the afternoon, but we ended up coming a bit early to get warmed up."

"We?" Kendou questioned before the sight of a sea of sky blue hair appeared from out of nowhere.

"Hey Kendou-chan, Midoriya-kun. What are you guys doing here? Are you still training? I heard that all of the first years are taking the provisional license exams already. That's pretty awesome! Are you excited?" Hadou immediately assaulted the two first years with a slurry of questions.

"Y-yeah." Kendou responded to the inquiry.

Just before anyone could say another word, the ever smiling Mirio Togata walked into the gym. Strutting as if he didn't have a care in the world.

"Hey first years, how's it going? You guys sticking around to get some extra work in?" The blonde haired boy greeted them.

"Something like that."

"Oh, since we're already here why don't we all train together? A little birdie told me that you went up against the 'Hero Killer' so that means you guys are pretty awesome, right?" Hadou spoke up.

"We shouldn't disturb their training, Hadou."

"Actually, that's a great idea!" Togata interjected while looking over to Midoriya. "You put on quite the show at the Sports Festival and I've been wanting to see how I measure up against you."

"R-really?" Midoriya asked with a bit of disbelief.

"Yeah! Nighteye mentioned you a few times and said that I should go against you if I ever got the chance."

"Oh, I see…"

He almost forgot that Togata was interning with Nighteye. Midoriya was curious as to why he was ever the topic of conversation between the two of them. But he knew that he'd more than likely never get an answer to that question.

"So what do you say? You wanna go a couple of rounds with me? It should be a pretty awesome time."

"Don't do it, he hasn't learned how to hold back yet." Amajiki tried to convince him otherwise.

Midoriya hesitated for a second before he gave his response. This was a golden opportunity for him. Togata was the top student at U.A. for a reason, why else would Nighteye hold him in such high regard? Sparring against someone like him would be a good way to gauge how the two of them stacked up against one another.

"Alright."

Kendou gave the green haired boy a slightly concerned look. "Are you sure, Izuku? You're still not a hundred percent. And from what I've heard, Togata-san is really hard to fight."

"Yeah, I'm sure." He responded. His face full of determination that Kendou couldn't remember ever seeing before.

"Is that alright with you, Midnight-sensei?" The blonde haired boy looked over to the R-Rated heroine.

"U.A.'s Goldenboy vs Wonderboy in a passionate exhibition of youthful vigour? Absolutely!" The woman practically cheered with a slightly inappropriate gleam in her eye.

_'Seriously? Why does everyone keep calling me that?'_ Midoriya silently lamented over his unofficial nickname.

"Alright! I can't wait to get started."

Kendou, Hadou, Midnight and Amajiki cleared the floor to give the boys some space. While they waited, the tension in the air slowly grew thick. This was the type of showdown that Kendou knew they weren't going to get too often. The top first year versus the top student at U.A.. The kind of exhibition that people would no doubt pay money to see. She still had no idea what Togoata's quirk was, but it had to be something powerful.

"I'm ready whenever you are." The blonde haired boy told Midoriya.

"Right."

_'This is guy that Nighteye wanted to receive 'One for All'. The top student at U.A., this might be my only chance to compare myself against him. I need to see what he has that I don't._' Midoriya thought just before activating his _'Full Cowling'_ to eight percent. He never liked making the first move in a fight, but the added speed from 'One for All' was probably going to be his only advantage.

With as much spirit as he could muster, Midoriya launched himself towards Togata. Flying through the air at a speed that the spectators couldn't help but be impressed by. However, just as he was about to close the distance, something happened that completely threw him off guard. And that something was the sight of the blonde haired boy's clothes falling off of his body.

"Wha-why did his clothes just fall off?!" Kendou shouted, her face a shade of red that would put any tomato to shame.

"Oh yeah!" Midnight began cheering, earning a few confused looks from the students. "What? He's eighteen, so I don't have to feel about enjoying the show."

"Sorry, my quirk is kinda tricky." Togata laughed as he rushed to put his pants back on.

_'You're wide open.'_ Midoriya thought as he launched a left jab square at his opponents sternum. But was surprised when he quite literally went right through him. His mind began running a mile a minute after he managed to land on the ground a few meters away. _'His quirk is phasing? That's an awesome power, what am I gonna do?'_

"So you went for the chest, huh? Personally I would've gone for the head." Togata said with a smile on his face.

Midoriya decided not to respond. Instead, he launched a nine percent "Delaware Smash" his way. But just as the air blast was about to make contact, Togata somehow vanished._ 'He can teleport too? What kind of quirk does he have?'_

Midoriya's thoughts were cut short when a powerful force flanked him from his left side. The blow was enough to launch him a good four meters from where he was just standing.

"Izuku!" Kendou shouted from the sideline. The orange haired girl was trying to make sense of what just happened. One second, the blonde haired third year was standing in front of him. The next, he somehow managed to hit Midoriya from a completely different direction. There's no way someone should've been able to move that fast without some type of speed quirk, unless…. "He has two quirks too?"

"Too? Wait, does Midoriya-kun have two quirks?" Hadou asked Kendou with much curiosity in her voice.

Midoriya was somehow able to gather himself and stand back up, locking eyes with his opponent. He had no clue what just happened, but one thing was certain. Mirio Togata was not going to be an easy opponent. The green haired boy quickly powered up his _'Full Cowling'_ to thirteen percent. With the way his quirk worked, he would be able to perceive things faster than any normal person would when he went over ten percent.

There was a brief pause before Togata started sprinting towards him. Just before Midoriya could get another "Delaware Smash" ready, the blonde haired boy disappeared. But this time, he was able to see him essentially fall into the ground. All Midoriya could do was try and predict where is opponent would pop up next. Appearing in front of him would've been a bad move, and attacking from the same side would've been too predictable. So that left only one real option.

Just as Midoriya figured this out, Togata jumped from out of the ground right behind him. The quirk inheritor was momentarily taken aback, but got his wits about him just in time to send a kick his way.

_'He predicted where I_ was_ going to be? Sir was right, this guy's good.'_ An impressed Togata thought when the two locked eyes.

Just as Midoriya was about to land the blow, Togata activated his quirk and phased right through it.

"Not bad, but get a load of this. **Blinder Touch Eyeball Crush!**" The blonde boy shouted as he plunged his hand straight through Midoriya's head. Out of instinct, the boy winced and brought his arms up to guard his face. All Midoriya felt next was a punch so powerful that it quite literally knocked the quirk right out of him. Forcing the green haired boy to crumple to the ground while clutching his gut. _'How is he so strong?'_

"Power!" Togata belted out while striking a heroic pose.

From the sideline, Kendou was absolutely gobsmacked. "Togata-san's a monster." She whispered out.

"Don't be mistaken. What you just saw was the product of Mirio's hard work." Amajiki followed up.

Since it was apparent to everyone that the fight was pretty much over at that point. Kendou rushed over to Midoriya's side to check up on him. Aside from the pain he was no doubt feeling right now, he looked to be alright. "Izuku, are you okay?"

"Y-yeah." The green haired boy moaned out. "The last person to hit me like that was Yuuto-san."

"Sorry about that. But you're pretty good! Not a lot of people can figure out my attack pattern so easily. Most people try to launch a counterattack like you did, so I've trained to work around that kind of thing." Togata gave him a confident smile.

"Oh man, Midoriya-kun. For a second I thought you almost had him!" Hadou's bubbly voice said as the rest of the group made their approach. "You're pretty amazing!"

"T-thanks, I guess."

"Are you sure that you're alright, Midoriya?" Midnight asked him.

"Yes sensei."

"Head over to Recovery Girl to get healed up. I think that was enough for today. Kendou, can you make sure that he gets there safely."

"Yes sensei."

"We'll see you later Itsuka." Amajiki said to the oranged haired girl.

"Yeah, you too." Kendou gave a nod before helping Midoriya up and walking him out the door.

* * *

After a much needed visit to Recovery Girl, who wasted no time in chastising Midoriya for getting hurt doing something stupid like fighting the top student at the school on a whim. The duo were making their way back to the dorms.

It was at this moment that Kendou became acutely aware of the fact that this was really their first time alone together since the new semester started. Sure, the two of them had that brief moment yesterday morning. But that was pretty much it.

_'Maybe now's a good time to ask him.'_ She thought to herself as the two of them turned the corner onto the road en route to their dorm. Maybe now was the _best_ time to do it? No one else was around, especially not Tokage. And with how busy their training schedule was, there probably weren't going to be any moments like this any time soon. Kendou mentally weighed her options before quickly coming to a conclusion.

She wasn't about to let this opportunity pass by her.

"H-hey um...Izuku…" Kendou slightly stuttered out as she suddenly felt her shoulders become heavy.

"Yeah?" Midoriya gave a curious look. Were his eyes always such a vibrant shade of green?

"Are you...doing anything the Saturday after the license exam?" She asked him as calmly as possible. Only a slight redness on her face.

"No, why?"

"W-well um…I was wondering…."

Suddenly, Kendou found herself unable to speak. A lump had magically appeared in her throat and her nerves were skyrocketing. Since when was she ever so bashful about anything? She was double black belt and third place "National Junior Martial Artist" for Christ's sake.

"What's wrong, Itsuka?" A slight bit of concern grew in Midoriya's voice.

Kendou took a deep breath before shaking her head. She was doing this, right here and right now.

"Do you want to go to a concert with me? It's here in Musutafu."

"Y-yeah sure." He simply replied. "I've never actually been to one before."

"Yeah...same."

"We haven't really had a chance to hang out since moving into the dorms, so it'd be nice." He gave her a quick smile.

That comment was enough for Kendou to feel a little bit of sharpness in her chest. Was that really all that he was thinking? Was Komori right? Did she already blew her chance? The last time the topic of the two of them dating was brought up, she immediately backpedaled. With as much courage as she could muster up, she mentally put her foot down. This was it. Right now was the perfect moment to do the deed and let her intentions be known.

"No…" Was all she said, stopping her feet and looking him square in eye.

"Huh?"

"I don't want to just _"hang out"_." She continued.

"I-I don't understand."

"A date...I'm asking you out on a date. Would you like to go out on a date...with me?"

There, she said it. It happened, what's done is done. She said it and now there was no going back.

After the words came out of her mouth, the orange haired girl immediately looked down to hide her face, not sure of what to expect. And the air around them grew silent for a moment. Silent enough to isolate the sound of her own heart, which was now beating faster than she had thought possible. The blood was rushing through her head and it almost felt like she was having a heart attack. She then looked up at the green haired boy, only to be met with what was now essentially a statue. His face was pale, his body was completely rigid and Kendou wasn't sure if he was looking at her or through her.

**404 ERROR!**

**404 ERROR!**

**IZUKU MIDORIYA. EXE HAS STOPPED WORKING.**

**PLEASE CALL SYSTEMS ANALYST FOR SUPPORT!**

On the other end of the equation, Midoirya's brain had shut down. Did that really just happen? Did Kendou really just ask him out? Him, Izuku Midoriya. Did Itsuka really just ask him out on a date?

No way, this had to be a dream. Maybe all those theories about real life being a simulation were true. Either that, or he was really in a coma and in the middle of a very complex and elaborate dream. Because there was no possible way in hell that this was actually happening.

"Y-you w-w-want to go out on a date...w-with me?" He managed to fumble out once he regained what was left of his sanity.

"Yes." The girl gave a quick nod.

"Why?"

"Because, I like you…."

_'Oh my God, I really just said that!'_

If Midoriya was confused before, his brain was absolute mush by now. Kenoud liked him. The girl he liked, liked him back. Tokage wasn't just playing some cruel and elaborate practical joke on him.

"So?" Kendou was still looking at him. Impatiently waiting for an answer.

"Yes!" He blurted out faster than his brain could stop him. "I-I mean...yes, I would very m-much like that…."

"Great!" The girl gave him a wide smile that nearly caused his heart to jump out of his chest. "Well um...I'll tell you the details after we get back. I'm not really too sure about everything myself yet."

"A-alright."

The two of them stood in very awkward silence before agreeing to head back. Neither of them really knowing what to say. Instead, they just marched back to the building in peaceful silence. Both of them unknowingly pinching themselves just to make sure that they weren't dreaming.

"H-hey, um Itsuka."

"Hmm?"

"I-I-I like you too…."

It took every last bit of will power for Kendou not to scream after hearing that.

* * *

"Ahh!" The voice of Yosetsu Awase shouted inside of the common area while clutching his head in both hands.

At the moment, all of 1-B were spread across various areas of the first floor. Bondo, Rin, Fukidashi, Tetsutetsu and Honenuki were crowded in the kitchen. Most of the girls were all huddled together on the couches. Midoriya had just walked in from his late afternoon run to clear the fog out of his brain. Aoyama was gawking at himself in a mirror on the staircase. And Kaibara, Awase, Shoda, Shoji, Kaminari and Shiozaki were all sitting at one of the dining tables with various textbooks in front of them.

"I can't do this! There's just too much information. Oh my god, I'm gonna fail...I'm gonna be the only fucking one that won't pa-"

***Smack!***

The sound of one of Shizaki's vines slapping Awase across the face brought him out of his momentary despair.

"Thanks Shiozaki, I needed that." The 'weld' quirk user lightly rubbed his face.

"Awase, chill out dude. You'll be fine." Kaibara reassured him.

"I'm not too sure, we still don't know what we're going to be doing for the actual exam. What if there's a written portion? Oh man, I suck at taking tests!"

"He has a point, though." Kendou added from her spot on the sofa next to Tokage. "All we've been doing so far is physical training. We need to brush up on hero regulations and laws just in case they test us on that. My friend who's a third year said they had to do a written test when he took it."

"Well, pretty much everyone is here, right? Why don't we just have one giant class study session?" Tokage suggested. Most of the students nodded in agreement.

"Hey that's a great idea! Midoriya, Setsuna and Juzo can all tutor us since they have the highest grades in class." Said Tetsutetsu.

"What do you say, Izuku?" Kendou asked the green haired boy who was still searching the refrigerator for a bottle of water. At the moment, the two of them were doing their best to play it cool. The last thing either one of them needed was their friends, or the entire class, knowing that the two of them agreed to go on a date barely forty-five minutes ago.

"S-sure, just let me head upstairs, shower and grab my notes." Midoriya said as casually as he could.

"Thanks Midoriya, you're a lifesaver man!" Kmainari said with a wide grin.

With that, the quirk inheritor vanished into the elevator to get himself situated before coming back down to their impromptu study session.

"Hey I've been meaning to ask you something, Kaminari. You're friends with Boom-Boy aren't you?" Tokage asked the blonde haired boy.

"I guess you could say that." The electric quirk user shrugged. "Sero and Kirishima are the ones who like hanging out with him, I'm usually just along for the ride."

"Honestly, with the way most of 1-A acts, I thought that you'd have a problem being in the same class as Wonderboy."

"Honestly, I've never had a problem with Midoriya." The yellow haired boy shot back.

"Really?"

"Yeah, sure I thought he was kind of a douchebag at the start of the year. But after he saved me, Jiro and Yaomomo during the USJ, I pretty much changed my mind."

"What happened with that anyway? I heard Midoriya-san ended up saving a few people before All Might showed up." Rin inquired.

"There's really not a whole lot to tell. One minute, the three of us are fighting off some villains. The next, I see a blur of green and Midoriya is standing over a pile of bodies. After that, he picked the three of us up and got us all to safety."

"He was really helpful when we got trapped in the flood zone, gero." Asui added. "I barely had enough time to think before he sprung into action and got me and Mineta out of there."

"Man, talk about a true hero." Honenuki gave a quick laugh.

After a few minutes, Midoriya returned with his backpack and notes in hand. The entire class wasted no time in huddling together and getting to work. Throughout this entire time though, Midoriya and Kendou kept stealing glances at each other every now and then. The only person to really notice this was Jiro who just so happened to be sitting next to the green haired boy. And that was because his heartrate kept spiking every few minutes. It only took a couple of times before the purpled haired girl finally figured what was going on.

_'Oh shit!'_

* * *

A few days later, class 1-B was going all out with their training.

Yanagi and Ectoplasm were perched atop one of the many concrete pillars. With the white haired girl doing her best to levitate multiple blocks of rock at once. Everything was going well for the most part. That is until Yanagi felt a sudden headache come on that broke her concentration. One of the concrete blocks that she was trying to control ended up tumbling off the pillar and was making a beeline straight for Yui Kodai, he was unfortunately taking a break right under them.

"Hey, watch out!" The _'clone'_ quirk user shouted. Catching everyone's attention.

Kodai looked up just in time to see the concrete block quickly descending towards her. Before the black haired girl had a chance to try and move out the way, a green and black blur appeared in her vision and she felt something lift her up off the ground.

**"Smash!"** Midoriya's voice boomed through the gym as he pulverized the stone into dust with a powerful sideways kick just in case someone else was close by.

As everyone watched him descend back onto the ground, the students and teachers took note of his new costume. Everything was the same for the most part, except for a few major changes.

The first thing that everyone noticed were his feet. Instead of his usual black combat boots, he was now wearing a new pair with black metallic guards that went up to just below his knees while surrounding the outside of his feet.

His top was pretty much unchanged, black in color, except he now had a harness around his shoulders and across his chest. But what was certainly the most eye catching part of his new get up was his right arm. Instead of a fabric sleeve, what everyone saw was metal. In fact, the entirety of his arm was now covered in a metallic brace that went from his fingertips all the way up his shoulder. The already impressive piece of tech was highlighted by a single green star on the outside of his deltoid.

"Kodai-san, are you alright?!" Midoriya asked the girl that he was currently holding bridal style in his arms.

"Hmm." The black haired girl quietly nodded while turning her head away from him.

For a moment, Midoriya could've sworn that he saw a bit of redness on the black haired girl's usually stoic face. But considering that she was almost crushed by a giant block on concrete, he couldn't blame the girl for feeling a bit flustered. He quickly set the girl down and apologize for grabbing her so suddenly.

"Dude, Midoriya. What the heck was that?" Kaminari asked as him, Awase and Tetsutetsu rushed over.

"Yeah, I thought you were more of a puncher." The _'steel'_ quirk user chimed in.

"You're not wrong. I needed to switch up my fighting style because of my arm. I still have a long way to go before it's perfected, but I think I'm going in the right direction."

"Y'know, everytime I think that you couldn't get anymore badass you just go and one-up yourself."

"Y-you think so?" Midoriya gave a sheepish grin.

"Yeah, it kind of shows you that even someone with a powerful quirk like you can keep improving. This may sound weird, but it's kind of inspiring." Komori added with a grin after make her own way over.

"Oh."

"Alright, that's enough chit-chat. The crisis was averted so you all can get back to training, but do be mindful of what you're doing. Yanagi, train at ground level for the rest of the afternoon." Kan announced to the class.

"Yes sir!"

On the other end of the gym, Kendou felt a light tapping on her shoulder. The orange haired girl turned around only to lock eyes with Tokage, who was giving her a rather devious grin. "Did you teach him that?"

"Kinda." Kendou rubbed the back of her head with a slight blush on her face.

"Figures." The green haired girl smirked.

* * *

**Author's Notes: I apologize if this chapter flowed weird for some of you. I intended on uploading this a couple of days ago, but things got in the way of that. Originally, this was supposed to be two separate chapters but I decided on combining the both of them just to get it out of the way. I'm trying to push through this part of the story and just get it over with.**

**1\. Sorry if that Midoriya vs Togoata fight was more lackluster than what you were expecting. In all honesty I couldn't see it going any other way. So I ended up just making it the same as cannon with a few minor changes. Plus it's been a while since Midoriya got his ass kicked.**

**2\. What do you guys think of Kendou teaching Midoriya "Shoot Style"? It's something that I've wanted to do since the beginning of the story and I felt like this was a good way to execute it.**

**3\. For all of those wondering, yes, Midoriya just went from Captain America to the Winter Soldier. I did plan on giving Midoriya a shield as a support item. But my friend suggested this idea and I loved it. Also, I'm having a hard time coming up with a good power-up/support item for Kendou. Her quirk doesn't leave you with a lot of room for creativity. If you guys have any suggestions, I'm all ears.**

**4\. Kendou finally asked him out! And it only took us thirty chapters to get here….. I've never been one for overly-dramatic confessions, so this is how I wanted it to happen. Their date is going to be the chapter after next and I've been waiting to write that out for a while.**

**5\. There won't be a lot happening next chapter, but it's certainly going to get pretty intense. I hope you guys enjoy it.**

**As always, thank you for reading and don't be afraid to drop a review.**


	31. Overdue Conversation

Before they even knew it, the day of the exam was here.

The students of U.A. had just gotten off the bus and with the sight of hundreds of students from different schools roaming about, it was hard not to feel slightly intimidated. As far as they were aware, they were the only first years taking the provisional license exam. So pretty much everyone here had way more experience than they did.

"Ugh...I'm getting kind of nervous." Jiro groaned with some trepidation in her voice.

"Seriously, this is so stressful. Oh man, what if I can't get my license?" Kaibara began mumbling while shaking from side to side.

"Kaibara, don't think if you can, say that you will." Kan told the black haired boy.

"Right!"

"_When_ you all pass this exam, you'll be considered semi-pros. I expect you all to do your best."

"Yes sir!" The class cheered.

"Alright, I can't wait to get started!" Kaminari pumped his fist in the air.

"Let's call out the old usual. Plus-"

"ULTRA!" Tetsutetsu's cheer was immediately interrupted by a tall, black haired man with a deep voice. Causing the students to jump unexpectedly.

The U.A. students turned around to look at the guy. He was sporting a wide grin on his face and had a glazed over look in his eye. Everyone was briefly stunned by the guy's actions. But just before they had a chance to ask him what he was doing, another group of students came walking up.

"Inasa, it's rude to barge into someone else's huddle like that." A purple haired boy with heavy bangs scolded him.

"Right, sorry sir!" The man now identified as Inasa quickly apologized by quite literally slamming his head into the ground with an exaggerated bow. "I'm so extremely sorry! I just love U.A. so much!"

"Who is this guy? I do not trust his enthusiasm." A very confused Rin asked.

The only person to immediately recognize him was Kan. _'This boy…'_

"Hey, check out their uniforms." Komori pointed out.

"They're from Shiketsu."

_'Their hero course is the only one that rivals U.A.'s.'_ Midoriya thought.

The black haired boy stood back up, still sporting a smile as a not-so-subtle stream of blood began running down his face. "I wanted to say it just once. See, I really love U.A.. I'm extremely honored to be able to able to compete against you guys!"

Just when Kendou was about to ask exactly what the guy thought that he was doing. A female voice called out to him from a distance. "Yoarashi, what did I tell you about dialing back the enthusiasm?!" She said.

"Yes, sorry ma'am."

The group of students turned their attention to see who he was referring to. And when they did, Midoirya's eyes widened at who it was. Short, with blonde hair and orange eyes. The woman was dressed in a sky blue body suit that stopped at the midpoint of her thighs, and a pair of white boots with the kanji for "wind" at the front. All along with a white overcoat that cut off just below her chest. Yup, no doubt about it. Only one person he knew matched that description.

"Oh hey, Midoriya. Long time no see, huh?" Kazeoko greeted him with a smile.

"Hello Sen-san."

"You know her?" Kendou asked him.

"Yeah...you remember Siphon, the hero I did my internship with? This is his fiancee, Sen Kazeoko. Her hero name is Zephyr."

"That's Sen _Heruzo_, now." The blonde haired woman corrected him.

"Wait, you guys already got married?!" Midoriya quickly blurted out in shock.

"Yes, the wedding was last week. I'm a bit disappointed that we didn't get a gift from you though."

"I apologize, I had no idea."

Heruzo was quick to let out a giggle this. "I'm just messing with you~. I am a bit surprised though, I wasn't expecting an entire class of first years to be taking part in the exam. The only one we have is Yoarashi here." She said while pointing over to the still smiling Yoarashi.

_'He's a first year?!'_ Everyone's thoughts echoed at this bit of information.

"Anyways, sorry for the interruption you guys. Good luck on the exam. Oh and Midoriya, Yuuto wanted to talk to you whenever you get the chance, give him a call some time."

"Yes ma'am."

"Alright guys, let's hurry on inside." Heruzo waved on her students.

As the Shiketsu group took their leave, one of them lingered for a second. It was a thin, blonde haired girl that was a bit on the taller side. Her attention was focused solely and Midoriya and nothing else. The strawberry blonde was staring at him, hard. Almost as if she was trying to look directly into his soul.

"Um, c-can I help you?" Midoriya nervously asked her.

"You look _delicious_." She said with a flick of the tongue across her full lips. Her eyes flashed at his obvious discomfort and a devious grin crossed her face.

"I'm sorry?" Kendou depanned with a slight scowl.

The girl wiggled her eyebrows at him in a very suggestive manner before rejoining her group. Leaving Midoriya's face a shade of crimson that was possibly a new shade of red entirely.

"What a bunch of characters." Tokage folded her arms with a bit of amusement at Kendou's obvious jealousy.

"Yeah, especially that tall dude."

"Inasa Yoarashi…" Kan said.

"You know that guy, sensei?"

"Yes, he received the second highest score for students admitted through recommendations. But for some reason, he turned down his acceptance to U.A. and went to Shiketsu instead."

_'If he had the second highest score for those who got in through recommendations, then that means he's only a step below Izuku and even got higher than Todoroki-san and Setsuna.'_ Kendou thought with a bit of amazement. That would mean that Yoarashi was pretty powerful.

"We better head inside too. I want you all to do your best, you hear me?" The blood themed hero told his students.

"Yes sir!"

* * *

"I still can't believe that we all passed!" Tetsutetsu cheered while throwing his arm over Rin's shoulder in celebration.

"I got a 73...I made it by the skin of my ass." Awase said through a few tears as Shiozaki did her best to console her stressed out classmate.

"I think Midoriya-kun and Setsuna tied for the highest score out of our entire group." Komori commented as she poured herself another drink. "On the way back, she spent half the bus ride complaining about how her spot as the top student in the class was being challenged."

Due to their stellar performance at the licensing exam, everyone agreed to throw a bit of an impromptu party to commemorate this joyous occasion. The students of 1-B were spread out across the common area participating in various activities such as a video game tournament and a bit of karaoke. Their spirits high with the knowledge that they came out of that place victorious.

"Does anyone know how 1-A did?" Kaminari asked the group.

"I texted Tsuburaba earlier, he said that only eight of them passed." Kaibara responded.

"That's shitty."

Back at one of the dining tables in the kitchen, Kendou was retelling the story of how the exams went for her. She was currently sitting with Tokage, Honenuki and Bondo who were all doing their best to suppress their laughter.

"I'm telling you the truth! That girl from Shiketsu ditched her costume and then hounded me and Izuku for the entire first part of the exam."

"Damn, that must've been quite a sight to behold." Tokage began slapping the table in amusement.

At the moment, everyone minus Midoriya was currently present. The green haired boy assured them that he was going to join in on the fun after he got done with a phone call to Yagi about something. But no one had seen him in the past hour. Kendou wanted to go upstairs and check up on him, but thanks to Tokage's constant badgering after learning that she finally asked him out without her knowledge, she wanted to keep that nonsense away from him.

Everyone's fun was cut short when the front door slammed open, revealing a very angry Bakugou who looked liked a man on a mission. His eyes scanned across the room before his face descended into an even deeper scowl. The 1-B students all froze in place to gawk at him, wondering what the guy was doing there.

"Bakugou? What are you doing here?" Jiro asked him.

"Ears! Where's Deku?!" He shouted at her.

"First of all, my name is Jiro, not _'Ears'_." Jiro shot back, folding her arms with indignation. "Second, I don't know anyone by that name."

"You got a problem or something?"

"As a matter of fact, yes."

Although Jiro wanted to feel bad for the ashen blonde for being kidnapped by those villains. After everything that she had recently learned about him, she found it incredibly difficult to do so. She made it no secret that she didn't like him before, but now she could say that she almost hated him.

"Hey, what's going on?" Kendou approached the two of them. Being the next one to earn an angry look from the 1-A student.

"Where's Deku, man-hands?"

Kendou hesitated for a second to calm herself down before responding. Her first instinct was to throw an insult back at him, but that would probably make the already tense situation even worse.

"I'm sorry...would you care to try that again, but a little less rude this time?" The orange haired girl put her hands on her hips.

"I don't have time for this, someone just tell me where that useless nerd is!"

"I'd rather not, and I think you should go back to your dorm."

There was a brief standoff between the two before the sound of the elevator opening broke the tension. Unfortunately, the person who came out was Midoriya who quickly rushed down stairs after hearing Bakugou's screaming from his open bedroom window.

"Izuku?" Kendou looked to him with concern.

Midoriya walked right past the orange haired girl and kept his attention solely on Bakugou. As the two former classmates glared at each other in silence, Tetsutetsu and Honenuki were about to move in between the two of them.

"The two of us need to have a talk." Bakugou practically growled not unlike a rabid animal.

"Alright." Midoriya nodded.

"Izuku?"

"It's fine." The green haired boy waved off. "I'll be back in a bit."

With that, Bakugou stormed out the building with Midoriya following behind him. The students of 1-B shared a series of concerned glances with one another trying to figure out what that was all about. Given recent events, along with Bakugou's temperament, it probably wasn't anything good.

"I don't like this. Do you think that we should follow them?" Jiro asked Kendou.

"Yeah…"

* * *

The long walk to the vacant area that was Training Ground Beta was an awkward one to say the least. Not a word was said the entire time and Midoriya had an uneasy feeling welling up inside of his chest. The sun had just barely set and there were still a few hours until curfew. Whatever was about to happen, the green haired boy hoped that it wasn't going to take too long.

This only lasted for a few more minutes before the two of them stopped in the middle of one of the roads of the artificial city. Both standing with a good eight meters of space in between them. The two boys glaring at one another with very different emotions going through their minds.

"Look, Bakugou…." Midoriya started, finally deciding to be the one to break the silence. "I don't know why you brought me out here. But first and foremost, I'm sorry for what happened back at the camp. I truly am. If had been more careful, I never would've gotten hit with Spectrum-"

"Shut the fuck up, Deku!" Bakugou immediately screamed at him. "You passed the provisional license exam didn't you?"

"Yeah...and you?"

"That's none of your damn business!" The ashen blonde howled back with a bit more anger than usual.

_'Well, I guess I have my answer.'_ Midoirya internalized. He already knew that a good part of 1-A ended up failing, but he honestly wasn't expecting Bakugou to be among that group.

"There a few things I want you tell me. The first of which is when exactly did a useless fuck like you get a quirk?" The ashen blonde demanded.

Midoriya let out a small sigh before answering. "If you must know, my quirk manifested about a year and a half ago."

"You're lying! Quirks just don't magically appear that late."

"Well mine did." Was Midoriya's simple reply. That was pretty much all he was going to tell him anyway. "Look, if that's all you wanted to talk about then I don-"

"Four days…" Bakugou started.

"Huh?"

"Four days is how long I was trapped with those losers villains. And if it wasn't for you, I would've never gotten caught!"

"Yes, you're absolutely right about that." Midoriya acquiesced. It was true enough though, if it wasn't for him then maybe Bakugou wouldn't have gotten captured in the first place.

"And while I was stuck there listening to them babble about dealing a blow to hero society and all that other bullshit, I learned a few interesting things."

"Oh?" The green haired boy quirked an eyebrow at that.

"You want to know what their plan was? That blue haired fuck with the drywall skin had no problem telling me." Bakugou began explaining. "According to him...their plan was to use lightshow's quirk on you and IcyHot from the beginning, so that you could cause enough havoc at the camp for them to capture me, along with the two of you."

"I see." Midoriya responded. That certainly would've made sense. If Todoroki ended up a victim of Spectrum's quirk as well, then things would've gotten a whole lot worse. Especially if he used the fire side of his quirk.

"But that's just the start of it. Lightshow told me how his quirk worked. Apparently you were supposed to rage out at anyone close to you, but instead you came straight after me. And you owe me an explanation for why!"

For a good ten seconds, Midoriya thought about what he was going to say. Actually, he knew what exactly what he wanted to say, but there was just no point in telling the boy the true reason for his unilateral aggression. It would've fell on deaf ears anyway.

"I guess it just didn't have the desired effect on me."

"Don't play dumb with me, Deku. Why did you only come after me and no one else? Is it because you hate me so much that you chose not to focus on anyone else but me?" Bakugou inquired with a low growl.

Yeah, that was pretty much it, wasn't it? His hatred towards Bakugou must've been enough to override whatever Spectrum's quirk was and compelled him to go after him, and him alone.

"Why?" Said Bakugou.

"What?"

"Why do you hate me, dammit?"

"Do you really need an answer that?"

"You _owe_ me an answer!" The _'explosion'_ quirk user immediately shot back before changing the subject. "Y'know, these last couple of weeks have been real fucking annoying for me becasue of you! Not only do I have to see dogface for counseling every fucking week. But now I have Aizawa on my ass about everything."

So that's what this was all about. Truth be told, Midoriya had expected his former teacher to address the situation with Bakugou personally, but he couldn't guess exactly how much the boy did and did not know.

"When the teachers did their visits about the dorms, Aizawa sat me down with my parents and forced me to listen about how I apparently _bullied_ you. Do you have any idea how humiliating that was? For two hours I had to sit through him and All Might of all people tell my mom about how much of a loser you were and how I hurt your feelings. Is that what you did? You ratted me out to the teachers about some useless shit that happened years ago?"

"Honestly...I didn't want anyone to find out."

"Is that so?"

"Yes. I didn't tell anyone about it because I wanted to keep that stuff buried away. If we're being honest, there was just no point. And doing so would've probably hurt your chances of getting into U.A.."

"You think I needed your help or something?!" Bakugou growled once again. "Are you looking down on me?"

"Sorry, but I'm not you. I don't look down on people, no matter how they act. That's not what a hero is supposed to do."

"Don't fucking mock me, Deku!" Bakugou snarled at him, his disposition becoming more feral as the seconds passed by. "Ever since we came to this school you've been looking down on me. Every chance you get, you just keep one-upping me just to make yourself feel better."

"Is that seriously what you think? You thought this whole time I've been looking down on you? Like I said...I'm not you." Midoriya shot back.

After saying that, something in the quirk inheritor's mind went off. That same buzzing sensation in the back of the head and the tingling in his right arm that he felt at the TDL came back. Except now it growing more intense by the second.

"Y'know the reason those losers wanted to capture me was because they thought they could turn me into a villain. Of course, I told them to shove it, but then pasty-face brought me a police report from two years ago. He said it was: _"Evidence that I was meant to be a villain all along."_."

Midoriya's blood immediately froze after hearing that. No way. There was no way that Shigaraki could've gotten his hands on that information. The only people who could've had access to it were the police and pro heroes. It should've been impossible for him to get his hands on that.

"You tried to kill yourself…." Bakugou said in a low tone, his spiky hair hiding the expression on his face. "At first I didn't believe it, but after Aizawa told it to me himself, that changed my mind."

Midoriya's body became rigid and cold as he tried to figure out what to say. This was not happening, this seriously couldn't have been happening. This what not the direction that he saw this conversation going. He needed to do something. He needed to change the subject, quick.

"Are you really that fucking stupid, Deku? Do you have any idea how selfish something like that was? I thought you were smarter than that, but I guess you're just as weak willed as I alway-"

"Shut up!" Midoriya yelled at the boy. For a split second, he thought that maybe Bakugou was going to show the least bit of tact when approaching the subject, but obviously he had been expecting too much from the _'explosion'_ quirk user. "Yeah, I did! I threw myself off of a bridge because I couldn't take _you_ making my life a living hell anymore. Is that what you want to hear?!"

"You're trying to blame that shit on me?" Said Bakugou with an insulted grimace on his face. "What the hell did I do to y-"

"Do you really not fucking rememeber?! All those beatings you and your friends gave me after school. All those times you torched my stuff and picked on me because I didn't have a quirk and still wanted to be a hero? Are you seriously telling me that you don't know why I would've done something like that?!"

Any other time, the tears would've been pouring from the green haired boy's eyes. But this was different. The buzzing in the back of his was growing stronger and his muscles were tensing up without his control. He was getting angry and he could feel a bit of 'One for All' trying to push its way through to the surface.

"Don't pretend like I was the only one!"

"Of course you weren't! But everyone only started coming after me because of _you_. You even got the others to start calling me that damn name."

"It's not my fault that you were a useless wimp back then who couldn't stick up for yourself. Maybe if you didn't parade around talking about becoming a hero when you knew you couldn't, I wouldn't have had to put you in your place!"

"And that made it okay? Making my childhood hell was justified because of that?!"

"Don't try and change the subject Deku-"

"I'm not a fucking, Deku!" The grained haired boy said with a level of venom in his voice that Bakugou had never seen before. "You keep calling me that damn name and I'm tired of it!" He continued on while trying to suppress the urge that was knocking on the door of his sanity.

"Y'know...a part of me hoped that you changed after all these years, but obviously I was wrong. You're still the same asshole who can't learn how to put his ego to side to save your life!"

"Don't try and insult me you damn nerd! The only reason I'm even in the mess that I am now is because of you. The entire time we've been students at this school you just keep getting in my way and making my life more difficult."

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know that I was such a hindrance to your path of becoming the _number one hero_. Not like you ever could."

"Is that it? You think you can be the number one hero instead of me?"

"I don't care about shit like that and I never did! When have you ever heard me talk about becoming the number one hero, huh? Maybe the sound of you blasting me damn near everyday at school damaged your hearing."

"Is that supposed to be a joke?"

Midoirya threw his arms to side in annoyance at what was transpiring right now. "I don't know...what do you think?"

At this point Bakugou was beyond pissed. He planned and grilling Midoriya for the answers that he wanted, but this conversation was going nowhere. On top of all that, in his mind, he had been insulted one too many times to let the nerd get away with.

"That's it! I'm fucking sick of you and your shit. You're gonna fight me...right here and right now so that I can finally put you in your damn place!" The ashen blonde began letting off small explosions in his left hand as an act of intimidation.

"And why the hell would I do something like that?" Midoriya looked to him. "Last time I checked, you can't beat me! You can't even handle me with half of my available power. Fighting you would just be a waste of time and it'd more than likely lead to us both getting in trouble."

Bakugou hesitated for a moment as he got into his stance. In all honesty, he didn't know why he proposition the green haired nerd for a fight. It might have just been a natural reaction to the emotions that he was feeling at the moment. His ego had been bruised and his superiority was challenged. He needed to do something to set the universe right and show him who was the strongest.

"Look, I thought you brought me out here so that we could talk about things like civil human beings, but I guess I was wrong. This will be the last time that something like this happens. I'm over you and your insane need to try and prove yourself to be the best. Whatever you do from here on out is your problem...not mine."

With that, Midoriya turned around and began making his way back to his dorm. He needed to get away, and fast. Something wasn't right. The buzzing in the back of his was still going strong and at the moment, he didn't trust himself enough to not do something foolish.

Needless to say, Bakugou wasn't going to stand for this. He was not about to let someone who he believed to be below him tell him off and just walk away like that.

"Don't you dare turn your back on me, Deku!" Bakugou howled, launching himself through the air with an explosion and making a beeline straight for Midoriya.

Out of instinct, Midoriya activated his _'Full Cowling'_ and turned around just in time to stop the boy. In the blink of an eye, he simultaneously grabbed Bakugou by the throat with his right hand and grabbed the boy's right wrist with his left. As the two of them locked eyes, Bakugou was slightly unnerved by the intense gaze that Midoriya was boring into his soul. It was the kind of look that came from someone who wasn't going to tolerate any more bullshit.

"The next time you try something like that...I won't hold back." Midoriya told him just before throwing Bakugou onto the ground. The green haired boy's voice was cold and almost spiteful. "Goodbye, Bakugou."

* * *

Behind one of the nearby buildings in a spot overlooking the street, Kendou and Jiro gave each other a couple of concerned looks. The two of them had more or less witnessed the entire conversation and were about to jump into action if it wasn't for Midoriya ending things right there.

"Well...that went just about as I expected." Jiro sighed with a hand on her chest.

"Let's just be glad that two of them didn't fight. I doubt we would've been able to stop them." Kendou said, releasing the tension in her shoulders.

"We should probably head back before Izuku does, I don't think he'd appreciate the two of us following him like this."

"Right…"

* * *

On the other side of the road behind another one of the nearby buildings, Uraraka and Hagakure both let out quiet sighs of relief. Earlier, the brunette saw Bakugou and Midoriya heading towards the training ground and got an uneasy feeling in her stomach. With little time to think, she grabbed her new vice-rep and followed the two of them all the way out there.

"Well shit…" Uraraka cursed under her breath. Dragging her hand over her face.

"I guess following them was a good idea after all." Hagakure told her.

"You got all of that, right?"

The faceless girl held up her phone before scrolling back a few minutes on the recording app she had opened up shortly after the two arrived. Pressing the "play" button on her screen.

_"It's not my fault that you were a useless wimp back then who couldn't stick up for yourself. Maybe if you didn't parade around talking about becoming a hero when you knew you couldn't, I wouldn't have had to put you in your place!"_ Bakugou's muffled voice could be heard through the recording. If it wasn't for the fact that the two of them had been yelling at each other, she might not have gotten all of that.

"So what are we gonna do? We can't just _not_ say anything about this." Hagakure asked the brunette. The invisible girl was still shaken up by the entire conversation.

"I know who we should talk to." Uraraka said with a resolute expression.

About ten minutes later, the two girls rushed over to their dorm and went straight to the fifth floor of the building. Uraraka frantically began knocking on the door and waited a second before her heterochromatic classmate poked his head out.

"Todoroki-kun, you got a minute?"

"Yes."

* * *

As he walked back to the dorms, Midoriya's mind was a tornado of thoughts. His talk with Bakugou left him in a haze and he didn't know what he was supposed to do right now. Did he really just do that? Did he seriously just threaten another student? Normally, he would've never done something so unheroic. But when it came to Bakugou, in that moment he felt like there was nothing else that he could've done.

When he finally made it back to the building, most of the students were still lounging about. But he didn't care about that right now. His body was aching and there was a burning sensation coming from the right side of his abdomen. It was a feeling that he knew all too well and something that he needed to deal with immediately.

His eyes immediately darted over to the kitchen and a dangerous idea popped into his head. If he was quick enough, no one would even notice him grabbing one of the knives and heading back up to his room. It would've been easy, real easy. He could even just cut over some of his already existing scars and there was a chance that the wounds would be healed up by the time he saw Recovery Girl.

With his mind made up, Midoriya began moving towards the open area, but was stopped when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"You okay, Izuku?" Kendou asked him.

"Huh?" Midoriya look to the orange haired girl. She was giving him a warm smile but for some reason her face was flushed as if she just got done running a few laps around the school.

"Are you alright?" The girl repeated.

"O-oh, yeah. I'm fine."

"Cool. Hey, some of us are about to watch a movie. You should join us."

The quirk inheritor thought about the proposal for a second. In his heart he knew that the last thing that he needed right now was to be alone. Especially with what he just realized that he was about to try and do.

"Yeah...sure."

"Awesome." Kendou gave him a grin.

Midoirya gave her a nod before the two of them made their way over to television where a good portion of their class was already waiting on them.

"So...what are we watching?" Midoirya asked the group.

"Tetsutetsu picked out a terrible movie and we're gonna to hate watch it." Tokage responded just before pressing the "play" button.

"What is it?"

"It's from way before the time of quirks, it's called _"Sharknado"_." Tetsutetsu told them.

"Is it any good?"

"Not in the slightest."

The duo joined the rest of their classmates and took their seats next to each other on the sofa. For the next hour and some change, everyone sat peacefully while they took turns breaking down the absolute masterpiece of a film that their silver haired classmate picked out.

As the movie drew to a close, Kendou felt a semi-soft weight drop onto her shoulder.

Oh no...

Midoriya had fallen asleep...

And was leaning on her...

In front of everyone...

***Click!***

_'Oh shit.'_

Kendou's worst fears were confirmed when she slowly turned her head to see Tokage desperately suppressing a laugh with one hand while holding her phone in the other. She whipped her head around to see Tetsutetsu, Jiro, Honenuki and Komori practically doing the same.

_'I'm never going to live this down.'_ The orange haired girl lamented as she resigned herself to her fate when most of the groups cellphones starting going off with text notifications.

* * *

The next morning, Midoriya woke up feeling a lot more rested and rejuvenated than usual. He had no idea how or when he ended up going to bed, but he certainly wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth. His mind was still a bit hazy thanks to his less than stellar conversation with Bakugou. But the fact that he was able to somewhat get all of these feelings towards the ashen blonde out of his mind was its own reward.

After showering, brushing his teeth and checking out the latest hero-related news reports, the sound of his phone going off drew his focus.

Microphone: What are you doing today?

All Might: Nothing, why?

Microphone: Good. Be there in ten minutes.

True to her word, ten minutes later Jiro was knocking at his bedroom door. When he finally opened it, the purple haired teen was standing before him, fully dressed and a slight grin on her face.

"Kyoka, what are you doing here?" Midoriya asked.

"Get dressed." She simply replied.

"What, why?"

"Because, we're going shopping. Your date is tomorrow and you need some new threads. The "Joe Smoe" look isn't going to cut it."

He couldn't argue with Jiro when it came to his sense of fashion. His wardrobe was plain, at best. Tomorrow was his first actual date with an actual girl that actually liked him, and he certainly didn't want to make a bad impression.

"O-oh, alright." Midoriya relented.

"_And_ you're getting a haircut."

…

…

...

"What?!"

* * *

**Author's Notes: I honestly wasn't expecting to have this chapter done so early, but I got hit with some late night/early morning inspiration and it kinda just wrote itself out. I wanted to balance out the intense moments with some fluffy ones. **

**1\. So yeah...I decided to just skip the bulk of the licensing exam in this chapter. There were a few key moments that I wanted to hit, and I honestly just didn't feel like writing the entire thing out. But don't worry Toga fans, she will be making an appearance VERY soon in the story.  
**

**2\. Regarding the argument/conversation between Midoriya and Bakugou, if you felt like things were all over the place, that was intentional. Because in real life when do heated arguments ever progress in a linear fashion? Also, this definitely won't be the last confrontation between the two of them.  
**

**3\. There's a reason why I chose Uraraka and Hagakure to be the ones who followed Bakugou and Midoriya to the training ground. Half of it was because of their new positions in 1-A, the rest will be revealed later on. How do you guys think those two are going to handle this groundbreaking information?  
**

**4\. Next chapter is going to be dedicated to Midoriya's and Kendou's date. Don't expect that chapter to be uploaded until the weekend. I'm still working out a few kinks and details.  
**

**Like always, thank you for reading and don't be afraid to drop a review.**


	32. Date Night

Two hours. Two long, grueling and annoying hours was how long Tokage, Shiozaki and Komori spent getting Kendou ready for her date. It was bad enough that the three of them dragged her all the way to Kiyashi Ward on Friday afternoon to go on an impromptu shopping spree that almost caused them to miss curfew. But they also barged into her room up at three o'clock this afternoon to get her "dolled-up" for her rendezvous with Midoriya.

As much as she appreciated the amount of effort that her friends were putting into this, Kendou had more than reached her limit when Kormori tried to stuff her into a bright pink, polkadotted dress that was slightly too inappropriate for a teenage girl to be wearing out in public. After several quick arguments and apology from Tokage for reasons that shall not be disclosed, the quartet was finally done with their preparations.

As Kendou looked herself over in the mirror for what felt like the thousandth time, she was actually pleased with the result.

After a text from Jiro telling them that her and Midoriya were good to go. Everyone made their way downstairs. While the four of them stood in the empty common area, Kednou's did her best to put her nerves at ease. Just before her brain could descend into a black hole of diffidence, the sound of the elevator opening drew her attention.

"Alright, it took some work but I think he's good to go." Jiro said with a satisfied tone in her voice.

When she finally mustered up the courage to look at him, Kendou's brain froze and she let out a not-so-subtle gulp. Standing in front of her was Midoriya, looking _very_ different than how he usually does.

The first thing she noticed was his outfit. The boy was dressed in his usual red boots along with a pair of black jeans, a red t-shirt with a star in the middle of his chest and a thin, green jacket that matched his hair and eyes perfectly. The entire getup was a far cry from his typically baggy clothing and was fitted to show off just how well built he really was.

But then there was his hair…the fluffy mop of green locks that she was so used to seeing was gone. The sides and back of his head were shaved close to the scalp. On the top, his hair was still fluffy but cropped to about two-thirds of its original length.

_'Oh shit…he's hot!'_

Kendou was brought out of her mental stupor when she felt Tokage's hand grab her shoulder.

"Now listen Red, if you fuck this up…I _will_ be playing the role of Wonderboy's supportive female friend who has no problem being his rebound." Tokage whispered to her with what was possibly the most serious expression she had ever seen on the green haired girl's face.

_'Oh no…she's beautiful.'_ Midoriya thought just before his brain turned to mush at the sight of his date.

Kendou was wearing a simple knee-length teal dress that was only slightly too girly for her taste, a pair of black high top sneakers and one of her favorite black leather biker jackets.

Unknown to him, Komori had unilaterally decided that Kendou was going to forego her signature side ponytail tonight and wear her hair down. It was only the second time that he had seen her without her hair up, but the way her orange locks draped just below her shoulders forced the heat straight to his cheeks.

"H-hey." Kendou slightly stuttered out once she got her wits about her.

"H-hi." An equally nervous Midoriya greeted back.

"So u-uh, you ready to go?"

"Y-yeah."

"Cool." She gave him a smile.

With most of the awkwardness finally out of the way, the young duo exited the building to go out and enjoy their evening. Leaving the rest of their friends with a set of satisfied grins.

"A job well done if I do say so myself!" Tokage's pride was practically seeping through her pores.

"I pray that they have a wonderful time." Said Shiozaki.

"We're still going to follow them, right?" Komori asked the other three girls.

"Uh…duh." The _'lizard tail splitter'_ quirk user responded with a devious grin. "There's no way in hell that I'm going to miss this after all the work that I put in!"

Jiro gave a quick shrug and wondered how exactly she got roped into this nonsense. "Well…we'd better hurry up get dressed then."

* * *

The short train ride over to their destination for the night was rather uneventful for Midoriya and Kendou. The two of them didn't really know what to talk about other than regular school related topics. There was a lingering sense of awkwardness in the air that neither knew how to approach. So for the time being, they sat next to each other in peaceful silence.

In no time, the young almost-couple arrived at the concert venue with about twenty minutes to spare before the start of the show. By the time they showed up, the place was practically filled from wall to wall. Midoriya knew that Jiro's parents were a decently popular musical duo. But from the sheer number of people in attendance, he had a feeling that tonight's headliners were more popular than he had originally thought. In truth, he still wasn't used to being around bigger crowds. Years of isolation on account of himself and his previously quirkless nature never afforded him the opportunity to be put in a situation like this.

"Man, this place is packed!" Kendou looked around with wide eyes.

"S-seriously, there must be over two thousand people in here."

"I don't even think we can get to our seats."

"Well, I guess it's a good thing that Kyoka got us these backstage passes." Midoriya said as he pulled out out their VIP badges. "You wanna see if we can get over there now?"

"Sure." Kendou nodded in agreement.

* * *

It didn't take long for the two of them to find their spots next to the stage. After slipping past a crowd of teens around their age and locating one of the event staff, Midoriya and Kendou were escorted over to an opening near the DJ booth. From what Kendou could tell, they were out of sight from everyone else, but they had an unobstructed view of the entire stage.

"Excuse me. You two wouldn't happen to be Midoriya and Kendou, would you?" A female voice asked the two of them from behind.

The two teens turned around to see a woman with short purple hair and glasses. It didn't take a genius to figure out that this woman was probably Jiro's mother based on her appearance. That along with the earphone jacks that were in full view.

_'Is her quirk the same as Kyoka's?'_ Midoriya wondered.

"Not quite, my jacks can only pick up sounds. And I don't have the same range as her." Mika Jiro answered with a smile.

"Huh?" The boy asked with a confused expression.

"The answer to your question."

"Wait, I said that out loud?"

"More like you whispered it, but I was still able to pick it up."

"I'm sorry Jiro-san, it's a habit that I have a hard time trying to break." Midoriya quickly bowed to apologize for his unexpected outburst.

"It's fine, no harm done. But since we got that out of the way, I'm Mika." The woman extended her hand out to the both of them.

"Hello." The two of them said simultaneously.

"Thank you for letting us see your show tonight."

"Don't sweat it, anything for friends of our daughter." Mika waved off. "Anyways, Kyoka asked us to make sure that you two got here safe. I was just checking up on you."

"Thank you for your concern, Jiro-san."

"Please, call me Mika." She said just before walking towards the stage. "Well, I better get going. I hope you guys enjoy the show."

* * *

Within a few minutes, the show was underway. The Jiro duo wasted no time in giving the concert-goers what they wanted and put on the performance of a lifetime. From their spot a few meters behind the band, Kendou looked in amazement as the crowd quickly burst into a sea of energy that she was not prepared for.

As she watched the audience move to the upbeat tempo of the song, Kendou decided that she wanted to join in on the fun. She let the beat of the drum and the rifts of the guitar resonate through her body. Feeling her feet begin shifting from side to side. Although she wasn't much of a dancer, Kendou knew enough not to make herself look like a complete idiot.

And it didn't take long before the orange haired lost herself into the music. The movement of her feet was quickly mimicked by her hips, and then by her shoulders and arms. As it turns out, years of martial training translated pretty well when it came to dancing. And Kendou did a pretty good job at incorporating a few of favorite moves in her impromptu dance recital. A not-so-subtle smile forming on her face.

In his mind, Midoriya was enjoying the show. Watching her body move to the beat put the green haired boy in somewhat of a trance. Although it was obvious that Kendou wasn't an expert when it came to dancing, the way she moved like an ever flowing stream of water was certainly enough to lose focus on his surroundings.

That was until he felt his date bump his hip with her own.

"It's not fun if I'm the only one embarrassing myself here." Kendou said with a wink and a grin.

"I-I'm not really much of a dancer." Midoriya sheepishly waved off, fiddling his thumbs between his fingers.

"Neither am I." Kendou giggled before grabbing his hand and pulling him towards her.

Teal eyes met green, and for a split moment it felt like the world around them ceased to exist.

Kendou took charge and began shifting her hips and shoulders from side to side much like she had been doing before. Except this time, with every movement she pulled her date along for the ride. Midoriya was understandably nervous at first. But eventually, he got with the program.

The green haired boy began copying her movements and let their bodies fall into sync. Both Kendou and Midoriya were sporting huge grins as the fast paced tempo of the music along with the base of the speakers got the blood flowing.

When the melodic tunes of the song ended, the two of them too a moment to catch their breath. Who knew dancing was so exhausting?

"See, now was that so bad?" Kendou chuckled as she rested herself against the boy's shoulder. Using the excuse of her momentary exhaustion as the chance to seize the opportunity to get close to him.

"Not a-at all." Midoriya laughed back with a fair amount of redness on his cheeks.

"Good to hear, because we have another two hours of that to look forward to." She looked up to him with a grin.

"I guess we do." He smiled back at her.

* * *

Eventually the show came to an end. After congratulating their friend's parent on their stellar performance, Midoriya and Kendou were quick to make their way out of the concert venue in hopes of beating traffic. The young duo did their best to bob and weave through the sea of people to get to the exit. But just before they could make it out the door, Midoriya felt a sharp pain shoot up his right hand.

"Ow!" The green haired boy winced as he checked himself. Looking to his hand to see a small cut that was already starting to bleed ever so slightly.

"Izuku?" Kendou looked to him with concern.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry! Are you okay?" A female voice said with a frantic tone.

The two of them turned their attention to a young, fair skinned woman who looked to be around their age. She had black hair, sky blue eyes and very prominent canine teeth. She was dressed in a black blouse and skirt along with a pair of bracelets with spikes covering their circumference. When she got a good look at her, Kendou couldn't help the feeling that she had met her somewhere before.

"Yeah, I think I cut my hand in something."

"You must've bumped up against my bracelet, sorry." The girl said in an apologetic tone with a quick bow. Her voice definitely sounded a bit familiar, but the orange haired girl couldn't put her finger on it.

"It's fine."

"Here, I have some tissues in my purse. Let me clean that up for you." The girl quickly pulled out a few tissues from her bag, wasting no time in grabbing Midoriya's hand and wiping it clean. After a couple of seconds the blood quickly dried up. But the girl ran her fingers over his injury with a slight gleam in her eye. "Oh wow, you sure have some strong hands." She said with a slightly unnerving grin.

Kendou felt a slightly familiar tug of something in her chest at the girl's words but put that to the side. The last thing she needed to be doing right now was getting jealous of a harmless compliment from a complete stranger.

"T-Thanks." A now red faced Midoriya bashfully replied.

"Hey…aren't you Midoriya? The guy who won the Sports Festival?" The girl asked with an even wider grin.

"U-uh yeah."

"Oh man, this is so cool! Hey can I get a picture with you? Pretty please. I'm Hinami Motoyasu by the way."

"S-s-sure."

The girl now identified as Motoyasu quickly pulled out her phone and handed it to Kendou. And with no hesitation she grabbed onto Midoriya and pulled him close. Taking the liberty to wrap her arm around his waist, placing her hand directly over the right side of his abdomen. All Midoriya could do was blush even harder at this. As for Kendou, that tugging sensation in her chest was now stronger than it was a second ago.

Hoping to get this over with sooner rather than later, the orange haired girl snapped a few quick photos of the two of them and handed Motoyasu back her phone.

"Alright! Thank you so much." The girl cheered as she sorted through the new photos on her device. Her smile growing wider by the second.

"It was no problem." Midoriya waved off as casually as he could. Still a but flustered after having a girl get so close to him.

Motoyasu decided that now was a good time to take her leave. But not before giving a quickle wiggle of her eyebrows and blowing him a kiss. "See ya' later hot stuff!" She chirped before turning on her heels and making her retreat.

The young duo stood in awkward silence for a second after processing what just happened. They knew that simply being U.A. students made them pretty famous, but having fans asked for photos with them was still something that needed some getting used to.

"She seemed like a real character." Kendou scoffed.

"Y-yeah."

"I feel like I've met her somewhere before though." She pondered as she racked her brain, only doing so for a few seconds before giving a shrug. "Eh, oh well."

"So what do you want to do next?" Her date asked.

"We still have a few hours until curfew. You wanna go hit up a ramen stand before heading back?"

"Yeah, I'd like that." The green haired boy smiled at her, forcing a bit of heat to rise up in her face.

* * *

"So you're still having trouble coming up with a support item for your quirk?" Midoriya asked Kendou after taking another slurp of his bowl of pork ramen.

The two of them were fortunate enough to find an empty stand not too far away from their previous location. Kendou would be lying if she said that she didn't appreciate the atmosphere of finally having some actual alone time together.

"Yeah." The orange haired girl sighed. "All of my ideas so far have been decent, but the main thing is trying to find something that can expand with my hands that's both light enough to carry but durable enough not to break."

"I see, that is a problem. Support items are tricky to deal with."

"Look who's talking mister "I have a metal arm."." She gave him a playful nudge.

He had a point though. Kendou never gave much thought to having a support item before. But after the provisional license exam, the test highlighted a few of her own shortcomings. So far she could only come up with the idea of having some sort of glove or gauntlet that could assist her, but with the way her quirk worked, it was a pretty daunting task.

She ended up putting in a request to the support course that morning. And by her own luck, Hatsume of all people took the request. She knew the girl did great work based on what she's seen her do with Midoriya's costume, but her request would take at least a week to bear any fruit.

"Maybe I can help you out on the design. I think I know enough about how your quirk works to come up with something. I'll have to check my hero notebook later though." Midoriya suggested.

"Oh~? You write about me in your notebook?" Kendou asked him, putting on her best impression of Tokage's signature grin.

This was enough to cause Midoriya's face to erupted into his usualshade of red. The boy quickly tried to backpedal in hopes of not coming off as creepy to his date.

"W-well I-I-I um...I mean y-yeah b-b-b-but I write about everyone so-"

"You're too easy sometimes, Izuku." Kendou let out a not-so-subtle giggle at his impression of a fish out of water. "But I do like the idea of you helping me out. I'd really appreciate it."

"Alright."

* * *

Eventually, the two of them finished their food and began making their way back to the school. Seeing as they still had a good hour left before their curfew, Kendou suggested that they walked the rest of the way to burn off all the ramen that they managed to scarf down.

After about thirty minutes of strolling around and taking in the sights that they city had to offer. They found themselves on the main road that led directly back to the school. The area was pretty much deserted, minus a few people were still lingering around. But for the most part the two students had their privacy as they walked along the concrete path. Kendou was glad that she opted for her sneakers instead of the god awful high-heels that Tokage tried to convince her to wear. Walking around this place would've been a nightmare otherwise.

The two of them engaged in some pretty casual conversation along the way. Nothing major, just more talk about stuff like school and their own personal interests. Naturally, Midoriya spent most of the time fanboying over hero related topics and Kendou went on and on about her martial arts studies. But as they got closer and closer to the school, and subsequently the end of their date. Midoriya still had something on his mind that was gnawing at the back of his head.

There was still a question that he needed answered.

"H-hey, Itsuka…w-what does this make us?" He inquired as he sheepishly rubbed his hands together.

"Hmm?"

"I mean, I-I know that we're still friends and all. B-but I've never really been in this type of situation before, so ..."

"Y'know, I haven't really thought about it up until now."

"S-so, are we like…dating?"

Kendou stopped moving as she took a second to think it over. Yeah, dating. That was the correct word, wasn't it? That's what how most people would describe what was going on between the two of them, wouldn't they?

"Well, if you think about it...we've kinda already _been_ dating. Technically, this is like our sixth date. N-not that I've been counting o-or anything." The girl embarrassingly waved her hands in front of her face.

"I-I guess you're right." Midoriya continued fiddling with his thumbs. "But a-are you sure that you w-want to date me though?"

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"I m-mean…I'm not really the most interesting person in the world, o-or the most experienced when it comes to stuff like this. Plus you already know about my uh…_habits_, a-and I'm not particularly good looking-"

The beginning of Midoriya's signature muttering was cut short when he felt Kendou wrap her arms around his body, pulling herself into a tight hug. This caused the green haired boy's already overactive mind to go into a tizzy. While at the same time, Kendou was to her best to keep her head from exploding. She honestly didn't care about any of that, and she wanted to let him know.

"As long as we're being honest, I'm kind of in the same boat." She said with a slight grin, looking up at him right in the eyes. "I'm pretty boring myself. The only halfway interesting thing about me is that I do martial arts. And when it comes to looks I'm definitely not the prettiest girl out there. And people call me "masculine" all the time."

"But you're way-"

"So what I'm trying to say is, neither one of us are really perfect. But I still like you either way. Plus, you're not the only one here with no dating experience."

"Oh…"

"We don't need to define anything just yet. Let's just take it slow and enjoy whatever this is, alright."

"Y-yeah."

"Cool." She gave him a warm smile that one would almost describe as "loving".

For the second time that night, Kendou took the initiative and grabbed Midoriya's hand with her own. Tightly interlocking their fingers just enough to where it wasn't uncomfortable for either of them.

* * *

Unbeknownst to them, a floating ear and eyeball were not too far behind. Eavesdropping on their every word with rapt attention.

"Damn! I thought for sure that she was going to try and kiss him. I'm so disappointed." Tokage huffed in annoyance at her best friend's lack of initiative. Earning a couple of laughs from Komori in the process.

The two of them along with Shiozaki and Jiro had been tailing them for most of the night. They made sure to keep their distance the entire time. But Tokage had to stop herself more than a few times from just running up to the two of them and knocking them upside their heads. She just couldn't understand how two people who were so obviously attracted to another could be so awkward and somewhat adorable.

"I told you that you were expecting too much." Jiro chuckled. "Izuku would probably have a heart attack if Itsuka tried to make a move on him like that."

"If it were me out there with Wonderboy, I would've already tried to cop a fe-"

***Smack!***

Shiozaki was quick to shut down what was sure to be another lewd comment from her green haired counterpart with a vine to the back of the girl's head.

"What?! I'm just sayin'..." Tokage rubbed her head in annoyance. "Geez, that hurt! I don't see how Awase puts up with that all the time."

"Let's just hurry up and get back before they find out that we followed them the whole night." Komori sighed in defeat.

* * *

The closer they got to their dorm, the more nervous Midoriya was becoming. He'll admit that he hadn't thought about what the two of them were going to do from here. Of course their friends were going to hound them with questions about how their night went as soon as they got back. But what were they going to do about the rest of the class?

"So…what are we going to tell the others?" The green haired boy looked to Kendou, hoping she had more foresight than he did.

"It's not like half the class doesn't already suspect something." The orange haired girl said just before raising her shoulders into an exaggerated shrug. "Eh, I say we just wing it."

"Really?"

"Yeah, why not? Unless you're not into that idea." She asked him with a bit of concern. Did he want to keep this a secret for know? Was he not comfortable telling anyone else that they went out on a date?

"I-it's fine, I just wasn't expect that kind of answer."

"I can understand that." The oranged haired girl smiled.

With that, the duo made their way into the building to enjoy the rest of the evening and get some much needed rest. The two of them more than happy with how their night turned out.

* * *

_~On the other side of the city in a dark alley.~_

"I thought I told you to check in with me every hour Toga. What the hell have you been doing?" The voice of Tomura Shigaraki spoke from the shadows over the phone.

"Calm down Shigaraki, I'm only a couple of hours late. It's not like anyone would find me out anyway."

"In the future make sure that you're on time. So...did you actually accomplish your mission this time?"

"I sure did! I wasn't able to get some of my sweet little Izuku's blood at that license exam, but I got lucky today." The girl held up a small vial with a drop of blood inside of it along with a blood stained napkin. Taking a moment to sniff its contents before letting out an orgasmic sigh.

"Good, now what about _him_?"

"Oh Izuku? He still looks as adorable and sexy as ever, I just can't wait to get my hands on him! But he was with that orange haired chick from the camp. Oh, I can't stand seeing her enjoying herself with my future husband, it makes me want to stab that bitch. But I can wait haha."

"Interesting. In any case, get ready for tomorrow. Twice is bringing us some yakuza bigshot and I need all hands on deck."

"Oooh, sounds like fun!" The girl let out a devious grin. Still keeping her eyes locked onto her new momento.

* * *

**Author's Notes: So yeah...I think their first official date went pretty well. What do you guys think? The whole "secret lovers" stick is kind of played out in my opinion. As of right now, the two of them are in that weird "dating but not officially together" zone, but that will be resolved quickly. I'm still trying to figure out the exact relationship dynamic that I want them to have, but it goes without saying that Kendou is going to be taking charge for the most part. But Midoriya will break out of his shell soon enough. **

**1\. Next chapter, the students officially start the next semester and get back to class. And obviously that means that they will be starting their work studies very soon. I'll let you guys take a wild guess at who the gang will be doing their internships with. **

**2\. As far as the whole Bakugou storyline is concerned, I'm pretty much done with him in this fic. I had no use for him other than that final confrontation with Midoriya after the licensing exam. The two will have one more conversation but that's pretty much it. There are four possible ways that I can wrap up that whole deal and I have yet to decide on exactly what route I want to go, but I'll come to a decision within the next week. Not everyone will find out about Midoriya's past, but a few important parties will finally learn the truth. **

**3\. I apologize for the late update, but work has been crazy. I'll do my best to put out at least one chapter a week from here on out, but I can't make any promises.**

**4\. I put a pretty subtle reference in this chapter, the first one to get it right in the reviews gets to help me with a part of the story. If they want. **

**Like always, thank you for reading and don't be afraid to drop of a review.**


	33. Yakuza Arc: Part 1

"Are you sure that you weren't using your quirk? I find it hard to believe that you're naturally that fast." Kendou said while she fanned herself off after finishing her ungodly long run with Midoriya.

Surprisingly enough, joining the green haired teen on his morning exercise to spend some time together was one of Shiozaki's ideas. And in truth, Kendou was all for it. That was until she learned just how intense Midoryia's training routine really was. Even with the "toned down" version that they just completed, she was having a hard time trying to keep up. She did pretty well when it came to stretches and warm-up calisthenics. But as soon as they started weightlifting and wind-sprints, Kendou quickly remembered that the boy had super strength _and_ superspeed.

"I wasn't, I promise." Midoriya apologetically waved his hands in front of his face.

"And you do that sort of thing _every_ morning?"

"Weekends are my rest days. B-but yeah, that's pretty much all I do during the week."

"How long have you been doing this?" She quirked an eyebrow at him.

"For a couple of years now."

Kendou couldn't help but let out a sigh how ridiculous that sounded to her. "Let me guess, Yagi-san got you into this type of thing."

"Y-yeah."

"Well…you are the guy who cleaned up an entire by himself. I really shouldn't be surprised."

All Midoriya gave in response was an awkward laugh. He definitely enjoyed the girl's attempt at trying to spend some "quality time" with him, but he was regretting pushing her so hard. He was used to this kind of thing after all, but she wasn't.

"H-how about next time we do whatever you usually do in the morning." He suggested.

"Compared the stuff that _you_ do on a regular basis, you might not even consider it a workout."

"I'm not so sure about that."

"Whatever you say "Muscles"." Kendou waved off before her words finally caught up to her brain.

_'Oh my god, did I really just say that?'_ She wondered as her already flushed face instantly became even redder.

Midoriya wasn't in any better shape, after that unexpected compliment and his face lit up like a Christmas tree.

The young "maybe-couple" decided to just forget that it ever happened and made their way back to the dorms. Just before the two of them parted ways to go shower and get dressed, Kendou pulled Midoriya in for a quick hug. In that brief moment of semi-intimate contact, she took a good whiff of his scent and was surprised to see that even though he was covered in sweat, he still smelled like apples and cinnamon.

Kendou quickly realized what she was doing and pulled away from him before turning on her heels and making her way back to her room. Giving a sputtered out goodbye in the process.

"I-I'll see you in class. L-later!"

_'Oh my god, what am I doing? I need to stop hanging around Setsuna so much.' _

"Y-yeah, s-see you later." A now furiously blushing Midoriya whispered out with a slight wave. He sort of blacked out when Kendou pulled him in for that random hug and barely had a chance to process her leaving him before she was already gone.

"Man…you two have it _bad_." A female voice said in cheeky tone from the kitchen area. The quirk inheritor turned his head over to see none other than Tokage chilling out at one of the dining tables with her phone in her hand. No doubt recording that entire interaction.

"O-oh, hey Tokage-san."

"Didn't I already tell you to call me Setsuna?" She shot back.

"Sorry." He quickly apologized.

"It's cool." The green haired girl waved off before flashing him a toothy grin. "Tell you what, you can make it up to me by taking your shirt off. I need some new material for…_research purposes_."

"Setsuna!"

* * *

The first day of the new semester went about as expected for the students of 1-B. The syllabi that they received from Kan that morning let them know that their workload was going to be increased for the new term. This bit of information earned a few groans from everyone not named Midoriya, Tokage, Kendou and Honenuki. But overall it wasn't anything that they couldn't handle.

At the moment, the students were on their lunch break and eagerly awaiting their first heroics class after returning to school. All of the boys were crowded around one of the larger tables near the back wall and chatting about everything from dorm life to new music that recently came out. No one knew what they were going to be doing for their next class. But their excitement was almost palpable.

"Y'know Midoriya-san, I'm kinda surprised that you decided to eat lunch with us." Honenuki told Midoriya from across the table.

"Huh?"

"Yeah." Kaibara nodded. "The only people we ever really see you hang out with are Kendou and Jiro."

"Now that you mention it…Midoriya and Tetsutetsu pretty much only hang out around girls."

"Really?" Tetsutetsu looked up after taking a bite out of a wad of aluminum foil. "Hmm, I never really noticed."

"You seriously didn't think that about that until just now?" Rin deadpanned.

"Guess not." The silver haired boy shrugged.

"Anyways…back to the topic at hand. I'm glad that you decided to hang out with the guys for once. We don't really see you a whole lot around the dorms. And based on everything we've heard from those 1-A guys we thought you'd just stick to being a loner."

"I-I can see where you're coming from, Honenuki-san. Honestly I'm trying t-to make an effort to be more social."

"Well that's good to hear."

"Alright, if you two are done stroking each others dicks, let's get right to the bullshit!" Awase said before slamming his hand on the table to draw in the other boy's attention. "What's the deal between you and Kendou? You two together or what?"

Midoriya's face immediately flushed and the others swear they saw a few sparks of green electricity shoot off his face. "W-w-what! I-I well um…that's kinda hard question to a-answer."

* * *

On the other side of the aisle, the girls of 1-B decided to follow the boy's lead and form their own all-female lunch group. And even though they were a pretty good distance away, they could still hear Awase's tactless attempt at prodding into their classmate's personal life.

"Why can't that boy ever learn to stop using such foul language? I pray that he will one day find salvation from his sinful ways." Shiozaki dragged her hand across her face in slight disgust.

"He has a pint though, gero." Asui added. "What is going on between you and Midoriya-san, Itsuka-chan?"

Kendou paused for a second before noticing the sly grin that Tokage was giving her across the table. Although the two of them agreed to pretty much just play it by ear, she wasn't entirely prepared for this moment. She thought about how she was going to respond before giving a mental shrug. Pretty much the entire class knew they liked each other by now, so there was no point in lying about it.

"Well…." She started as she bashfully rubbed the back of her head. "We did go on a date this Saturday. But...I wouldn't exactly say that we're a couple just yet."

Everything around her suddenly stopped and sound of chopsticks dropping on the table drew her attention. The orange haired girl looked around to see what was happening, only to be met with a myriad of different looks from her classmates. Tokage was giving her an approving grin, no doubt impressed by her bluntness about the topic. Jiro and Shiozaki just looked plain surprised. Komori was doing her best to stifle a laugh. Asui's eyes were slightly wider than usual. Yanagi was giving her a look that she couldn't quite place. And Kodai's face was as unchanged and emotionless as it always was.

"What?" Kendou calmly asked the group.

"Wow, you really just came out an said it! There may be hope for you yet." Tokage crossed her arms with a bit of pride.

Just before she could respond, Kendou and the rest of the girls noticed Kodai extending an open palm out towards Yanagi. Only for the white haired girl to fish into her jacket pocket for a brief moment before pulling out about 3,000 yen and handing it over to her.

"What was that?! Did you make a bet or something?" A now slightly offended Kendou asked.

"Hmm." Kodai simply nodded before pocketing the bills.

"I take it that's why Midoriya-san decided to get a haircut, gero." The frog-themed girl inquired.

"I'm pretty sure that was Kyoka's idea, actually." Kendou replied.

"Yeah." The purple haired girl shrugged. "I thought it was time for a new look. Luckily it didn't take a lot of convincing."

"Y'know…if the hero thing doesn't work out, you might have a future as a stylist." Komori joked. Getting a few laughs from the other girls.

* * *

After lunch was over, the hero course students eagerly made their way to class to meet up with Vlad King and Midnight. Apparently they were covering down for All Might, who was busy receiving an award or something from the new Empress on Japan.

"As you all are aware, now that you have earned your provisional licenses that means that you eligible to do work studies with any pro hero that is willing to take you under their wing." Kan started.

"We could bore you with the technical details of this, but we decided that it would be best to hear from those who were in your shoes not too long ago." Kayama continued before dramatically motioning over to the door. "Come on in!"

Much to Kendou, Midoriya and Tokage's surprise, in walked a very familiar trio of students.

"Some of you may already know them, but these youngsters are considered the best of U.A.'s hero course. People are calling them the _'Big Three'_."

Togata, Amajiki and Hadou all strutted into the classroom with smiles on their faces (Minus Amajiki who looked like he was about to have a nervous breakdown for some reason). The students all made small remarks and observations about meeting the third years who were already listed on the national hero charts.

"We don't have a lot of time, so let's begin with brief introductions. Let's start with Amajiki." Kan announced.

The students all froze in place at the intense glare that the pointy eared boy gave them. Only for Amajiki to immediately begin shaking and turn his back to the class. Resting his head up against the whiteboard in an attempt to hide his shame. Leaving everyone, minus one student in particular, completely confused.

_'Same old Tamiki.'_ Kendou internally giggled.

"C'mon Tamaki-kun, you gotta learn how to stop being such a cinnamon roll, even tough you're a human…y'know what I mean?" The girl said before redirecting her focus back to the class.

"Hi there, I'm Nejirie Hadou and this is our cinnamon roll Tamaki Amajiki. You guys are in for a real treat, work studies are a blast!" The bubbly, blue haired teen introduced herself. "Hey, I have few questions."

"Bondo-kun, which one of those wholes do you use to see out of?" She asked the gentle giant of the class.

"Actually-"

"Rin-kun, you're the Chinese exchange student, right? How come you speak Japanese so well?" Hadou didn't give Bondo a chance to answer before redirecting her inquiry.

"My mother-"

"Oh Midoriya-kun, are you ever gonna tell me what your other quirk is?"

"W-well, you see-"

"Hey Setusna-chan! How've you been?"

"Pretty good."

"Shiozaki-chan, can you propagate flowers from your vines? Do you think you can grow roses from them?"

"I've never though-"

"Oh wow, you guys are so cool! Let's have a quick Q&A!"

_'She's a total airhead…'_ Everyone who wasn't used to the blunette's antics thought.

"Togata, reign this in before I get a headache." Kan groaned while having flashbacks of his first year as a teacher.

"No problem Vlad-sensei. I'm next and I'll be sure to liven up the party!" The blonde haired teen gave him a thumbs up.

Everyone's attention was now onto Togata. The boy paused for dramatic effect before beginning his own special introduction. "Alright, the future's gonna be…"

***Crickets***

"Awful! Hahaha!" He began laughing as if he didn't have a care in the world.

"So, are you guys really the top students at U.A.?" Tetsutetsu questioned the very animated and quirky trio of third years.

"Hey, I get it. A group of third years just randomly showed up to your class to explain a program that isn't mandatory until your last year at school." The boy explain before a shadow casted over his figure. "But I guess that also means that maybe you all simply just lack a sense of humor."

Hadou and Amajiki both shot Togata a set of sharp looks, knowing what was going to come next. "Mirio, hold on-"

"Nope, it's been decided!" Togata cheered while flexing his muscles. "All of you first years are gonna fight me at once!"

…

…

…

"Huh?!" The 1-B students gawked.

"Is that alright with you Vlad-sensei. As Eraserhead would say, it's the most logical course of action to show them our experience."

Kan looked to his students, then back to Togata, and then back to his students. _'Oh shit, this is gonna be good!'_

"Do whatever you feel is best." The white haired man simply said with a straight face.

* * *

"Is he serious about this?" Kaminari asked what everyone else seemed to be thinking.

"Oh yeah! Totes serious." Togata laughed as he stretched himself out. His smile still as present as always.

The entire class was brought into the TDL for the sole purpose of everyone fighting Togata at once to show the first years what they had to strive to. Everyone quickly changed into their gym uniforms and began their usual warmup stretches. A few of them snickered and scoffed at the audacity of someone challenging an entire class of decently experienced hero students to a fight. Much less take them all on by himself. However, there was one thing wasn't quite right about this picture.

"Question." Kaibara raised his hand while looking to Kan and Kayama. "Why the heck are Midoriya and Kendou on the sidelines?" The _'gyrate'_ quirk user pointed to his two classmates.

At the moment, Midoriya and Kendou were lined up on the wall next to Hadou and Amajiki. Both of them doing their best to keep their lips sealed on what the top student of U.A. was capable of, on Kan's orders.

"It has come to my attention that Midoriya and Togata have already been training together. Also, Kendou was present for this as well. Since they already know what Togata can do, they won't get as much out of this as you all will." The blood themed hero explained.

"Hold up!" Tokage blurted out before anyone else could speak. "You're saying that Wonderboy and Goldenboy fought each other and we missed it?!"

All Kan did was give an affirming nod.

"So what happened? Did Midoriya wipe the floor with him too?" Awase slightly snickered.

"No…" The green haired boy simply stated. "Togata-san beat me pretty easily. Honestly, it wasn't that much of a contest."

"He's right. I'm pretty sure the whole thing lasted about fifteen seconds before Izuku was down for the count." Kendou added.

"What?!" The rest of the class shouted in unison. A few of them found it hard to believe that a powerhouse like Midoriya could actually be defeated so easily. Hell, it took three of their best students with a good combination of quirks to _almost_ take him down. But judging by the honest look on the green haired boy's face, he was completely serious.

"Alright, so he beat Midoriya one-on-one, no big deal!" Tetsutetsu puffed out his chest while striking a manly fighting pose. "There's eighteen of us and one of him."

"Metalhead's right." Tokage agreed. "Close range fighters and those with defense oriented quirks surround him. Long range team, get ready to follow up!" The girl commanded.

"Right!" Said the others, circling around the _'permeation'_ quirk user.

"So…who's going to take first swing at him?" Rin nervously asked the group.

Tetsutetsu decided that he was going to be the one to rise to the occasion. So far through the school year he hadn't really gotten the chance to prove himself to his classmates. So dealing with the top student at their school would definitely put him on the radar. "I got this!"

Togata gave a smile at the silver haired boy's zeal. "I like that. You got some fight in you, huh?"

The _'steel'_ quirk user skipped the witty banter and launched himself straight at the blonde haired boy, letting out a manly war cry in the process.

_~13.63 seconds later.~_

"Power!" Togata belted out while striking a pose.

The pained groans of the students of class 1-B echoed throughout the TDL. To put it simply, it wasn't even a contest. Most of them didn't even have time to process what was happening before feeling a powerful force strike them in the abdomen. Everyone was laid out on the ground, clutching their stomachs. Well, everyone with the exception of Jiro and Kaminari who somehow managed to get wrapped up in the purple haired girl's quirk right after getting knocked down.

_'I'm honestly kind of glad that I got out of this.'_ Kendou silently thought to herself as she looked towards the group of semi-lifeless bodies that was her class. Even Tetsutetsu's quirk wasn't enough to save him from the punishment she just witnessed.

After licking their wounds (And an embarassingly decent amount of vomit from Komori), Togata gave the students of 1-B a rather inspirational speech before he and the rest of the Big Three took their leave. Leaving the first year students excited, and very sore, to get started on their upcoming work studies.

* * *

After classes were over and done with for the day, Midoriya used his free time to make a phone call to a certain silver haired man that he had been meaning to talk to for a while.

_"Hello?"_ The groggy voice of Yuuto Heruzo said on the other side of the phone.

"U-uh, Yuuto-san?"

_"Midoriya, what's up? Long time no talk. What, did you forget about me or something?"_

"N-no sir."

_"Sen told me that she saw you at the licensing exam. So did you pass or what?"_

"Yes, I d-did."

_"Cool! Hey dude, sorry I couldn't be of much help back at the whole Kamino Ward thing. I was stuck on a mission with my team. I saw the whole thing between All Might and you know who on television. How are you holding up?"_

"I'm fine."

_"I heard about your arm. Is that healed up yet?"_

"How did yo-"

_"Guy, do you not know who you're talking to?"_

"Right, s-sorry."

Midoriya almost forgot how well connected Heruzo was. Getting information on the stuff that happened back at the camp must have been child's play for someone with his connections.

_"So, to what do I owe the pleasure of this phone call?"_

"Right. I-I was wondering if you were willing to talk to me about doing my work study with you."

_"They're letting first years do that now? Wow, I guess U.A. isn't an elite school for nothing."_

"So…is that a yes?"

_"Yeah, sure. Drop by my house on Saturday. We'll talk about it then. Me and Sen are having Uwabami over but that shouldn't be an issue."_

"Oh that's right, Ituska did do her internship with her." Midoriya absentmindedly said out loud.

_"Oh yeah, that ginger girl that you have a crush on. Wow, you two are on a first name basis now? Sounds like I missed something good."_

"N-no, i-i-it's not…w-well I uh…"

_"I'm just fucking with you, guy."_ The silver haired man let out a quick laugh. _"Hey, why don't you bring her along too? I'm sure she'd probably want to talk to Uwabami about it, so why not kill two birds with one stone?"_

"I-I'll ask her if she wants to come."

_"Yuuto, that's Midoriya isn't it?!"_ A female voice echoed on the other side of the line.

_"Hey, what the he-"_ The sound of a brief struggle caught Midoriya's curiosity before a cheery voice made itself known.

_"Hey Midoriya, it's Sen! Good job on the license exam, you were like a force of nature out there. Yoarashi said that he wants you to be his rival."_

"Thank you, Sen-san."

_"I also saw that you and that Kendou girl were sticking pretty close to each other~."_ The blonde haired woman teased.

"W-well…" Midoriya felt the heat slowly rising in his cheeks.

_"Oh you're too adorable."_ She continued. _"Anyways, you should definitely bring her over this Saturday. It'll be so much fun!"_

"I'll s-see what I can do?"

_"You're a sweetheart. Anyways, Yuuto will call you back later. Me and him are going on vacation for the rest of the week and he still needs to pack my bags. See ya later, bye!"_

_"Hey I wasn't do-"_

The line cut off before he could hear Herzuo finish his statement.

* * *

After his talk with Heruzo, Midoriya went downstairs to join Kendou, Jiro, Tetsutetsu, Komori, Honenuki, Tokage and Awase for one of their study sessions. Apparently the class-rep and vice-rep decided that these were going to become a weekly thing to help everyone stay on top of their grades for the new semester. By the time he made it down there, the only person present was his crush/friend/possible girlfriend(?). She was sitting at one of the dining tables and he took the open seat next to her.

"Hey Izuku! How was your talk with Siphon?" Kendou greeted him with a bit more excitement than he was use to seeing from her.

"It went pretty well. I'm actually going to his house on Saturday to work out the details."

"That's awesome. I'm kinda jealous that you got picked up by such a cool hero. I'm still sort of regretting my decision to go with Uwabami." The girl admitted. Uwabami wasn't a bad hero by any means in her opinion, but she much preferred getting to see some action rather than the photoshoots and being a glorified assistant.

"Actually, Uwabami is going to be there as well." Midoriya told her.

"Oh yeah, they are like best friends, aren't they?"

"Yeah. Yuuto-san said that he thinks it's a good idea if you tag along. That way you can see if she can help you out finding someone to do a work study with."

"That does makes sense." Kendou rubbed a hand to her chin. "She's pretty hard to reach. I tried calling her agency earlier but she wasn't available."

"So would you be open to it?"

"Sure. What time do we need to be there?"

"He said we can drop by any time. Why?"

"Well…." The girl started before her cheeks suddenly became red. Looking away from him to hide her embarrassment. "I was thinking that maybe the two of us could go out another date before or after. I-if you're okay with that."

Now it was Midoriya's turn to blush at this proposal. In truth, he till had a hard believing that a girl actually wanted to go out on a date with him. "Y-yeah…s-sure. I'd like that." He said with a wobbly smile.

"Awesome!" Kendou smiled at her success at securing a second actual date with her crush/friend/possible boyfriend(?).

There was a brief silence amongst the two of them before Midoriya's phone went off. He checked his device to see that Todoroki of all people texted him. That was odd. The heterochromatic teen barely communicated through text. Or at all….

* * *

Yin-Yang: Come to the 1-A dorms right away.

Yin-Yang: It's important.

All Might: Do you really think that's such a good idea?

Yin-Yang: Bakugou isn't here. Him and Kirishima will be gone for the next two hours.

All Might: What's the problem?

Yin-Yang: It's best to have this conversation in person rather than over the phone.

All Might: Okay, be there in fifteen.

* * *

It didn't take long for Midoriya to make his way over to the 1-A dorms. He'll admit that he felt a slight bit of anxiety as he reached his hand for the door handle. As far as he knew, most of everyone in his former class still harbored a bit of resentment towards him for everything that happened back at the camp. A part of him was secretly hoping that he would be able to just slip in undetected and get to Todoroki's room without anyone noticing.

_"Midoriya, what are you doing here?"_ Tsunotori asked him in her native English as soon as he set foot into the building. The American girl just so happened to be the only one in the common area.

_'So much for that.'_ He mentally groaned. At least the first person he saw wasn't someone who hated him.

_"Hello Tsunotori-san."_ He greeted her back. _"Todoroki-san invited me over. Sorry if I'm bothering you."_

_"Oh no worries, I think his room is on the fifth floor."_

_"Thank you."_ He gave the horned girl a quick bow before heading to the elevator, thankful that he didn't have to run into anyone else.

After the short elevator ride up to the top floor, Midoriya found himself face-to-face with his friend's door. He gave a quick but forceful knock and waited a second for a response.

"It's open!" A familiar voice called out, the only peculiar thing was that the voice certainly did not belong to Todoroki. If he didn't know any better it almost sounded like… _'Hagakure-san?'_

Choosing not to waste another second, the quirk inheritor open the door and quietly shut it behind him. When he turned around, he was met with the stoic gaze of Todoroki. Along with Uraraka, Tokoyami and Hagakure.

_'Hot damn! That new haircut does him justice.'_ Hagakure blushed before shaking her head and getting back into serious mode.

"So…w-what's going on Todoroki-san?" The boy nervously asked as he tried to figure out why this particular group of people were huddled inside of his classmate's room.

Instead of responding, Todoroki motioned his head over to Uraraka who had a very worried expression on her face. He didn't know whether that was because of him, or something else. The brunette let out a exasperated sigh before standing up and taking a few steps towards him. Her expression shifting from one of worry to something in-between stressed and determined. On top of that, the girl was clutching her phone in her hands with an usually tight grip.

"Midoriya-san…I need you to take a look at this."

* * *

**Author's Notes: To be honest, I don't know how I feel about this chapter. I ended up writing it in a day and felt pretty satisfied with it. But after reading over it this morning, I had mixed feelings. I feel like it moves the story along in all the right places but there's a lot "filler", if you can call it that. But if you guys like it, then I'm happy with it.**

**1\. So yeah, the conversation between this group is definitely going to get interesting. I think I finally decided on how I want to wrap up that particular part of the story. But I'll sit on it for another couple of days. I would like to think that this is the beginning of everyone getting in good graces with Midoriya and vice-versa...with the exception of a few people.**

**2\. One of the things I've started enjoying about writing this fic is non-romance interactions between Midoriya, Kendou and their classmates. I've tried to put a little bit of my own personally into each one of the side characters (I feel like I've been using Awase a lot to personify my own stressful and foul-mouth nature). I'll try to keep it to a minimum, but I can't help myself sometimes. **

**3\. Yes, Siphon is officially returning. I have a pretty interesting story twist involving him that I've been planning for some time. Hopefully you guys don't believe it to be to cheesy or "convenient" when it's revealed. He's honestly a character I could see appearing in other fics that I may or may not write down the line. **

**4\. A few people have PM'd me, asking me this. So let me just address it here. This is NOT a harem/smut fic. I'm not really interested in writing those kinds of stories. And I can really only tolerate them in low doses. So if you think that's the direction that the story is going, I'm sorry to disappoint.**

**As always, thank you for reading and don't be afraid to drop a review. **


	34. Yakuza Arc: Part 2

"Well…shit." Midoriya cursed once the video stopped playing.

If he was being honest, the green haired boy didn't really know what to think right now. They got everything. Every last second of his argument with Bakugou from the time the two started talking up to his departure. The one thing that he didn't want to have happen, happened. One of his two biggest secrets was out. And what was worse, the evidence was now in the hands of someone that he didn't know all too well.

Uraraka was giving him a look that he couldn't quite place. Her brown eyes were glaring at him with a spark that he was unfamiliar with."Midoriya-san, I'm sorry that we followed you and eavesdropped on your…conversation. But Aizawa-sensei told me to make sure to keep an eye on Bakugou-san. And after seeing you two together, I-I got worried."

"It's fine, Uraraka-san."

"Midoriya, this is anything _but_ fine!" Hagakure interjected with an impatient tone. "What he said- what _you_ said…the teachers need to know about this!"

"They already do." Tokoyami spoke up, earning a few surprised expressions from the girl. Even if you couldn't actually see Hagakure's face.

"Are you serious?"

"Yes." The raven headed teen nodded.

Judging by the way her clothes seemed to slump over, the invisible teen was absolutely floored by this information.

Who wouldn't she be? Finding out that one of your classmates used to be bullied for seemingly not having a quirk by another one of your classmates. Only for said classmate to resort to jumping off of a bridge and somehow surviving. Then having the unfortunate luck of having to deal with the person who caused him so much torment almost everyday for over six months. The whole thing was crazy.

"Who else knows about that video?" Midoriya asked the brunette.

"Only the people in this room. Me and Toru have the only two copies of it."

"Midoriya." Todoroki made himself known. "You already know how I feel about this subject. But since this is your business, I asked Hagakure and Uraraka to talk to you before coming to a decision."

"Thank you, Todoroki-san."

"I'm going to be upfront with you about this, Midoriya-san. I want to turn this video into Aizawa-sensei." Uraraka told him.

"She's right. Overlooking the conversation itself, Bakugou did attack you with the intention of using harmful force to get you do battle with him." Tokoyami chimed in.

"Look, I don't know the full details of what the history is between you two. But I do know enough to know that sounded like an admission of guilt, if anything." Hagakure turned the group's attention back to her.

"She's right."

Midoriya held his tongue and tried to figure out what he was going to say next. The situation is exactly what he wanted to avoid when he decided against telling everyone else about his past. He knew that he could trust the teachers to keep their mouths shut about it. But the students were an entirely different story. On top of that, he knew enough about Hagakure to know that the invisible girl was pretty loose-lipped when it came to gossip.

"Midoriya-san?"

"To be honest...I'd rather you just delete the video and be done with it." The quirk inheritor admitted. That statement earned more than a few surprised looks from everyone. Even Todoroki was thrown off by his words. "Look, I hate Bakugou, I really do. And nothing would make happier than to see him face the consequences for what he put me through. But at this point, I'm just over it."

"But still, he-"

"But…" He cut her off. "I don't want to be the one responsible for someone losing out on their chance to become a hero just because of a personal grudge. He may be a terrible person, but he is still trying his hardest."

"You're too nice for your own good." Todoroki told the boy.

"That being said. At the end of the day, this isn't really up to me." Midoriya looked towards the two girls. "You're the ones with the evidence. So whatever you do with it is up to you. I won't pretend that I don't entirely care, but it's out of my hands."

"So that means that whatever we do, you'll just roll with it?" Uraraka asked.

"Yeah." He nodded.

"I see."

A pregnant silence filled the room as everyone thought about what the next move was going to be. Uraraka and Hagakure were somewhat unnerved by Midoriya pretty much telling them that they could do whatever they wanted. Sure, they didn't know him all too well. And they would be lying if they said that they had entirely positive opinions about him. But this was something that neither of them could really overlook.

"I appreciate you guys telling me this and coming to me before coming to a decision, but I have to be going." Midoriya told him before making his way to the door. "I guess I'll be seeing you guys later."

With that, the green haired boy made his departure. Leaving the four 1-A students to their own devices to think about everything.

"So what are we going to do?" Tokoyami asked.

"We're gonna show this to Aizawa-sensei."

* * *

Kendou would be the first to admit that she was not an expert on romance in any way, shape or form. But when she asked Midoriya if he wanted to go out on a date with her, the last thing she had in mind was spending half of her Saturday morning lugging around boxes and crates around the Yamanaka flower shop. In fact, she was almost certain that she couldn't count volunteer work as a date at all.

A few days ago, Midoriya had gotten a call from Rayet and Ayako to see if he wouldn't mind helping them move some supplies for them. And in typical Midoriya fashion, he accepted the offer without considering the fact that it was going to conflict with what the two of them already had planned.

When he mentioned this little hiccup of his to Kendou, she wasn't mad. Slightly annoyed, but definitely mad. However, hoping to make the best of the situation the orange haired teen decided to join him in this endeavor. It had been a while since she saw the wheelchair bound girl and she was honestly looking forward to seeing her again. Plus, Midoriya promised to make it up to her as soon as he got the chance. And she was really interested in seeing exactly how he was going to do that.

"I really appreciate you guys doing this." Rayet said with a thankful tone.

"It's no problem, Yamanaka-san." Midoriya told her as he threw a barrel of flower seeds over his shoulder. Both Kendou and Rayet still found it a bit ridiculous how he could easily haul around something that weighed a good ninety kilograms as if it wasn't a big deal.

"Yeah." Kendou spoke up. "How could I call myself a future hero if I didn't help out someone in need?"

The oranged haired girl's comment earned a smile from her blonde haired friend. The group of teenageers continued on like this for the next few minutes without delay. At some point, Midoriya disappeared into the back to grab some more crates. And Rayet quickly pounced at the opportunity to get some answers.

"So…" She began with a slight grin as she rolled over to Kendou. "You two seem to have gotten pretty close."

Kendou immediately knew what the girl was getting at and her face almost erupted into a shade of pink. "W-well, I guess you can say something like that."

"So are you two offical yet?"

Kendou gave her an awkward shrug in response. "We're dating yeah, b-but I wouldn't say that we're really a couple yet. I mean, we've only been on one real date so far."

"I see." The blonde haired girl tapped a finger to chin in contemplation. "Well if you ask me, the two of you seem like a good match. You're really the first person that I've seen him interact with so casually."

"I wouldn't doubt it. But he definitely has a lot more friends now than when you guys went to school together."

"That's good to hear." The blonde girl smiled.

Before Kendou could respond, the sound of the front door to the shop opening up interrupted her. Ayako Yamanaka had left a few minutes ago to pick up a few things but quickly returned from her errands carrying a few snacks in both hands.

"You guys look like you could use a break." The blonde haired woman said as she walked over to the two girls.

"I can't argue with you there. Moving this stuff was a lot more tiring than I thought."

"And I greatly appreciate your help Kendou-chan. If you ever need an arrangement made, you can drop by anytime, free of charge."

"Thank you, Yamanaka-san."

"Oh, you can just call me Ayako dear. I'm not one for formalites unlike most people." The woman said with a smile before leaning in close enough to where her mouth was right next to Kendou's ear. "And for future reference, Midoriya-kun's birth flower is the larkspur plant."

The orange haired girl's face once again erupted into a furious blush as she tried to wave off the comment. But all Rayet and Ayako did in response was laugh at her expense.

"Midoriya-kun, come out here and take a break. I got some snacks for you guys!"

"Alright." He responded. A few seconds later the boy made his way over to join the rest of the group. Ayako began passing out the refreshments. Which pretty much amounted to a few bags of chips, a couple of sandwiches and some bottles of water. But there was one other thing that the woman made sure to get on her way back.

"Here you go Kendou-chan. Black with no cream and four sugars." She said while handing Kendou a fresh cup of coffee.

"Um, t-thanks?" The girl accepted with a confused look on her face. How did the woman know exactly how she liked her coffee?

"Midoriya-kun told me how you preferred to drink it before I left." Ayako explained.

"Really?" Kendou looked over to the boy who was bashfully scratching his cheek with a bit of redness on his face. Whatever annoyance she felt at the beginning of the day was definitely overwritten by the small gesture.

After their quick snack break, the young couple finished off the rest of their work around the shop. Ayako and Rayet thanked them once again and told them to drop by whenever they got the chance to just hang out and catch up. With that, Midoriya and Kendou took their leave to head over to Shimane for their rendezvous with Siphon and Uwabami.

"Aren't they just adorable? In an awkward, but dorky kind of way."

"Definitely."

"So, how are you holding up?"

"I'm fine, mom." Rayet gave her a bit of a sigh. "I knew I never really stood a chance. But I'm glad to see that he looks happy for once."

Ayako couldn't help but give her only daughter a loving hug at hearing that. She knew the girl had a crush on the green haired boy for a while, but decided to never act on it on account of how distant and cold he used to be. "Don't worry sweetie. Maybe you can get them to introduce you to one of their friends?"

"Maybe I'll ask them about it the next time that they're over here." Rayet joked.

* * *

The train ride over to the Heruzo household was pretty uneventful for Kendou and Midoriya. Aside from a few people recognizing them and asking for pictures, things went pretty smooth.

After departing from the train station it only took them about twenty minutes before arriving at the admittedly large house. It was her first time over at Siphon's home, and Kendou was more than impressed with how nice the place was. She knew the silver haired man was all about keeping a low profile, so seeing that he lived in such a lavish house was sort of confusing.

Midoriya wasted no time in knocking on the door to announce their arrival. But after a couple of seconds with no response, he simply turned the door handle to see if it was open. Sure enough, the door was unlocked.

Just before he set foot into the house, he paused and looked to Kendou with a rather grim expression on his face.

"Hey Itsuka, stay behind me alright." He told her. He had a bad feeling in his gut and he pretty good idea as to why that was.

"Is something wrong?" She gave him a concerned look.

"Just...trust me okay."

"Alright." She nodded, albeit still confused at why he was acting so cautious.

Midoriya slowly crossed through the threshold of the door and made sure to look around just in case a certain someone was lurking about. Fortunately, there was no one around that he could see. "Hello, is anyone he-"

***Bam!***

The next thing he knew, Midoriya felt all of the energy in his body quickly disappear and the world around him went dark.

"Izuku!" Kendou's voice was the last thing that he heard before falling unconscious.

* * *

If he wanted to be honest, Midoriya really should be used to this kind of thing by now. His week long internship with Yuuto at the start of the year should have been more than enough to let him know that the silver haired man was as unpredictable as he was powerful. The feeling of waking up after getting hit with _'drain'_ was something that he never really liked. Especially since it was always followed by an overwhelming sense of hunger.

_'I wonder how long I was out for this time.'_ The quirk inheritor wondered. Only for the sound of Sen's voice to bring him out of the haziness that permeated his brain.

"...swear that girl is such a mystery sometimes! A month ago she was all _"yeet"_ this and _"Oh fam, that's so lit!"_ that. Now, she barely says a thing and actually talks like a regular human being instead of damn meme lord." The blonde haired woman ranted off in the background.

"Maybe she's just going through something?" The voice of Uwabami responded.

"Who knows?"

Midoriya sat himself up just slow enough to not cause a cramp in his gut. But he couldn't help but let out a loud groan at the feeling of having all of his stamina sucked right out of his body.

"Oh, Midoriya. You're finally awake." Sen said with her usually cheery tone.

The green haired boy popped his head out from over the sofa that he was laying on to see Kendou, Sen, Yuuto and Uwabami all sitting at the dining room table. Judging from the fact that Yuuto was his normal size and not a hulking wall of muscle. He must've been out long enough for the stealth hero to burn off all the excess energy he gained from using his quirk on him.

"Ugh...what happened?"

"Yuuto hit you with his quirk again." Sen explained.

"How? I didn't even see him."

"I was hiding above the door frame when you walked in." The silver haired man nonchalantly replied as he took another sip of tea from his cup.

"Figures."

"Come over here and join us. You were out longer than I expected so your plate is cold."

Instead of some witty remark, Midoriya simply nodded and complied. Dragging himself over to the large black wooden table where everyone else was currently sitting. He plopped down onto the open seat next to Kendou and poured himself a glass of water. But failed to notice the sly grins that Sen and Uwabami were giving the two students.

Kendou was a bit surprised at how relaxed Midoriya was acting after essentially being attacked by the man that he was hoping to do his work study under. The orange haired girl just assumed that it was a regular occurrence between the two of them.

"Now that you've finally decided to join us, let's get down to business." Yuuto began.

"R-right." Midoriya turned his attention to his possible mentor. "So uh, have you thought about my request?"

"Yeah, I did. Normally I wouldn't waste the time dragging around a rookie, but you've grown on me. And since you've already gotten your provisional license, I guess that means that you're capable enough to not slow me down. Plus, having a minion around would mean that I won't have to do as much paperwork." The silver haired man said with a not-so-subtle laugh.

"That's great!"

"We can work out the fine details once I get my schedule in order. My team isn't doing any missions for the next month, so we'll have plenty of time to get you some experience."

"Thank you so much."

"Don't be mistaken, your internship was just a formality. We're going to hit the ground running as soon as you start."

"Yes sir." Midoirya nodded before turning his head towards his possible girlfriend(?). More than likely he was out for at least a couple of hours. So Kendou probably used that time to work out the details of her own work study.

"So, what about you?" He asked her.

A slight tinge of pink appeared on the girl's face as she awkwardly rubbed the back of her neck. Trying to figure out a way to break the news. "Y-yeah well, as it turns out-"

"She'll be joining us." Yuuto responded as if that wasn't a big deal in the slightest.

Mdioriya's head whipped around so fast that you could almost the bones in his neck crack. "What?!"

"Yes, I was dead set on having Itsuka-chan join me once again. While you were asleep, the four of us got to talking and Sen suggested that working under Yuuto would be for the best. It would give her the kind of field experience that she was looking for. I can't help but feel as though my heart has been split in two by the fact my own pupil would reject my tutelage." Uwawbami explain with a fake tear in her eye.

"I'm sorry Uwabami-san. I don't want you to be mad at me." Kendou gave the snake haired woman an apology. She felt bad for essentially rejecting her offer to work under her. But she just couldn't deal with running around as a glorified assistance when she had the opportunity to do some actual hero work.

"It's fine dear." The snake haired woman waved off.

"S-so we'll be working together, huh?" Midoriya looked to her with a slight grin.

"It looks that way." She returned the gesture.

_'Oh these two are just adorable!'_ Sen and Uwabami both mused. The two of them already crafting up ideas on how to make their lives a living hell.

_'Man, this is awkward.'_ Yuuto mentally scoffed at how ridiculous everyone was being.

Midoriya turned the focus of the conversation back to Yuuto. "So, when do we start?"

"Next week, if you can manage." The pro hero offered. "Since you just started the new semester we're going to take things slow so you don't fall behind. After classes are done for the week, the two of you will come here Friday after school. From there, you'll be working with me up until Sunday afternoon and then head back to U.A.. Is that alright with you?"

"Yes sir." The two students agreed.

"Great. Make sure that you get plenty of rest. I usually work late, so we'll be pulling a couple of all-nighters."

"Alright."

Those terms were more than agreeable for Midoriya and Kendou. It gave them a chance to focus on school when they needed to. And since neither of them really did anything on the weekends besides train, they had no problem with dedicating that time to focusing on their goal.

The group continued on with their meal for a couple of minutes before Uwabami decided that now was a good time to bring up a topic that she had been sitting on ever since Yuuto told her that Kendou was going to be meeting up with them.

"Now that we have that settled. I have a proposal for the two of you." The strawberry blonde looked to the two students as she handed a piece of steak to one of the snakes on her head.

"What is it?" Kendou inquired.

"Since I'm losing one of my valued up and coming hero prospects, I'll be needing some _compensation_." A bit of a smirk appeared on her face.

"Okay?"

"I would like the two of you two model for my fall fashion line."

Midoriya was almost certain that he misheard the woman speak when she said that. "I'm sorry?"

"I'm releasing a new clothing line next month and I need some attractive, young hero students to model for me. And you two fit the bill perfectly!"

The young couple shared a glance with each other as they let the offer sink in. Needless to say, neither of them were expecting this turn of events. Of course, Midoriya had his own reservations about the whole thing. Modelling was something that was way out of his depth. As for Kendou, the orange haired girl shuddered a bit as she had flashbacks of the last time that Uwabami convinced her to pose for one of her products. Spending hours getting her hair and makeup done while posing for the camera definitely wasn't something that was looking forward to.

"I-I'm sorry, Uwabami-san. But I don't think that I can do something like that." Midoriya told the woman in an apologetic tone.

"Oh come now, Midoriya-kun. It'll be for a good cause. Half of the profits will go towards this new suicide prevention campaign that me and some other top heroes are putting togther."

"Really?" The boy asked, failing to hide the surprise expression on his face.

"That's a surprise. I didn't know you cared about stuff like that." Kendou stated.

"It was actually Yuuto's idea." Uwabami motined over to the silver haired man. "He suggested that it would be good to put the word out. It may be the twenty-fourth century, but Japan still has a stigma about that sort of thing that isn't healthy. Especially for younger people."

The quirk inheritor turned his head towards Yuuto who was doing his best to keep his attention focused on his food. For a moment, the boy wondered if he was aware of his past. Which certainly wouldn't have been surprising considering the man had a knack for getting information on people relatively easily.

"Um...I-I really don't know what to say."

"I'll give you two a week to think it over. But I hope to have an answer the next time that you're up here." The snake haired heroine acquiesced.

With that out of the way, the group continued on with their meal in relatively peaceful silence. That was until Sen decided that she had enough of everyone not addressing the giant green and orange elephant in the room.

"Alright, I've held my tongue for long enough. So let's get down to brass tax!" The _'cyclone'_ quirk user half shouted with an evil grin on he face. "Are you two finally dating or what?!"

* * *

After their successful venture to Shimane prefecture, Midoriya and Kendou made their way back to U.A. to get some much needed rest and relaxation. Officially, they wouldn't be able to start their work studies until next week. But they were more than happy to tell their friends about it.

"So you got approved for a work study? That's awesome!" Tokage gave Kendou a congratulatory pat on the shoulder.

"I'll say. From what you've told us about Siphon, he seems like a perfect match for you."

"What about you guys? Have you had any luck?" The orange haired girl asked the group. She was curious as to how many of them were actually going to participate in the work study. The program was voluntary, but she was certain that a good chunk of the class was going to take part in it.

"Ryukyu agreed to let me work with her and Nejire again. I'll start working with them next week after the paperwork gets approved by Kan-sensei." Tokage announced.

"I took your advice and talked to Amajiki. I don't know if Fatgum will take me on yet, but I'm feeling pretty good about it." Tetsutetsu told her with a toothy grin.

"Unfortunately I've decided that doing a work study wouldn't be the best for me right now. I want to focus on my grades for the time being. Taking attention away from academics would be a sin." Shiozaki admitted, albeit a bit bashfully.

"Same." Komori, Kaibara and Rin agreed.

"Yeah, it makes sense that you guys would jump at the chance seeing as you're all _"A"_ students. Even Juzo's going to be working with Edgshot." The _'gyrate'_ quirk user said while trying to hide his shame.

"You guys shouldn't let this discourage you though." Kendo told her classmates. "Everyone learns at a different pace. Honestly, we're lucky that Siphon is keeping us on weekend duty otherwise we'd have to supplementary lessons with Ectoplasm-sensei."

"Yeah, Itsuka's right! This just means that we have to work harder so we don't fall behind." Komori pumped her fist into the air. Everyone couldn't help but find it funny how the once shy and skittish teenager had somehow become this super confident ball of energy.

"Yeah, you're right about that." A few other nodded.

Midoriya couldn't help but wonder if his friends in 1-A were going to take part in the work study as well. As far as he was aware, Tokoyami was one of the only eight to pass the provisional license exam. He was curious if the raven headed teen was going to try and work under the number three hero Hawks again.

With the announcement out of the way, the 1-B students all crowded around the television in the common room to take part in their weekly video game tournament. Although he never played, Midoriya saw it as a good opportunity to bond with his new classmates. He was still having trouble adjusting to being more social, but it seemed like a step in the right direction.

* * *

About thirty minutes into their fun, which amounted in Yanagi recording eight straight victories over everyone else, Jiro and Kaminari made their way into the building after spending the entire afternoon at the mall. The both of them were carrying bags from various music and clothing related stores.

"So...you literally just hid in the bathroom the entire time?" The _'earphone jack'_ user gave him an unimpressed glare.

"Hey man, don't give me that look!" The blonde boy said as he tried to plead his case. "After Aizawa-sensei took down that guy with the fire quirk, I thought we were good. All I heard was Bakugou shouting and decided it would be safer to just, y'know...hold in place. I had no idea that Midoriya was the one out there."

"Real heroic there, Jammingway…."

"You're so mean!" Kaminari whined at his classmates' teasing.

Their arrival drew the attention of everyone else. No one really paid attention to the fact that the two of them seemingly disappeared for the entire day. Well, no one except for a certain green haired girl who suddenly became very interested in this new development.

"What's up guys. Where were you two all day?" Tetsutetsu asked them.

"Hey man." The _'electrification'_ quirk user gave a wave. "Me and Jiro were just looking at new guitars. I'm thinking about buying one."

_'Oh, is that so?'_ Tokage thought with a mischievous grin.

"Oh cool. Hey, some of us are about to play some Super Smash Bros. You want in? I'm tired of Yanagi beating everyone."

"Heck yeah! I call dibs on Kirby." Kaminari practically cheered as he threw himself onto the sofa next to Kodai and Shoda.

Tokage was quick to put herself next to Jiro. All while giving the purple haired girl a look that she knew all too well. There was mischief to be spread and she wasn't about to let her new target get away from her so easily.

"So...you and Kaminari spent the whole afternoon together, huh~?" The _'lizard tail splitter_' user inquired in a very sultry tone.

Jiro couldn't help but blush at what her friend was most certainly implying. Quickly deciding to avoid her at all costs, she made a beeline straight for her room. The purple haired girl was not about to become Tokage's latest victim.

"I'm not dealing with you today."

Tokage put her hand over her chest in mock offense at being shot down so quickly. "What? C'mon girl, let me work my magic. The two of you wou-"

"Nope."

"Don't be like that."

"Nope."

"Think about it. You already have matching hero costumes and everythin-"

"Nope."

Tokage watched as Jiro disappeared into the elevator to head back to her room. But it was already too late. The green haired girl was already committed to her newest goal.

* * *

**Author's Notes: So yeah, there you have it. The roster for who's going to be taking part in the Yakuza raid. I feel like it would make sense for Tetsutetsu to be there as well, seeing as his friendship with Kendou with give him a good chance to connect with Amajiki. I have a pretty cool power up for him coming up that I've been waiting to reveal. And I already mentioned that Tokage did her internship with Ryukyu and Hadou since she did pretty well in the Sports Festival. Another student will be there as well and I'll let you guys take a guess at who it's going to be.**

**1\. So what do you guys think about Uwabami's offer to Midoriya and Kendou? Do you think that they'll accept it? Honestly, I have no idea if they will or not. I'm tempted to just flip a coin and see what they'll do.**

**2\. I think I've finally decided on a good support item for Kendou. I don't think that it will be revealed next chapter, but it's a pretty good one in my opinion. It will give her a major advantage when the Joint Training happens.**

**3\. Well, Midoriya left the decision up to Uraraka and Hagakure. And they made the choice. I'll try not to go overboard with what will happen as a result of that. But I'm pretty sure you guys already know what's coming.**

**4\. We're finally getting back into the battle scenes next chapter. I'm working out a few combo moves for Midoriya and Kendou to do together, but I'd love to hear your guy's ideas on what they could do. A lot of you have been really helpful in giving me inspiration for some of these scenes and I want to make sure you enjoy them as much as possible.**

**As always, thank you for reading and don't be afraid to drop a review.**


	35. Yakuza Arc: Part 3

Manual labor was not a foreign concept to Momo Yaoyorozu.

Sure, the staff back home would handle all of the daily tasks that were required to maintain the beauty of her parent's mansion. But it wasn't as if she never lifted a finger before.

However, the almost backbreaking tasks that she had grown accustomed to doing everyday were...a little more than what she was used to.

But at the end of the day, she had no one to blame but herself. If she hadn't allowed Kirishima to convince her to go along with their failed rescue attempt, then they never would've needed to be rescued by the pro heroes themselves. The entire operation rested on whether or not she could've been swayed to help them. And in the end she let her emotions on the subject cloud her reasoning. Because of that lapse in judgement, she was now falling behind the rest of her classmates.

The raven haired teen continued on with her mental ruminations as she set down yet another box of cleaning supplies on the patio in front of the main entrance to the 1-A dorm.

Just as she was wiping the sweat from her forehead, she felt a strong gust of wind at her left side. Yaoyorozu looked over at the cause of this, and much to her surprise, standing next to her was none other than Midoriya setting down what looked to be the rest of the boxes that she was supposed to be hauling into the building.

"Midoriya-san?" The raven haired teen look to him with curiosity.

"That should be everything." Midoriya simply said.

"What are you doing?"

"You looked like you needed help."

"Oh…" She looked over to the remaining boxes. Part of her was grateful that the green haired student had helped her with the rest of her chores. But another part was curious as to why he just randomly decided to go out of his way to do this.

"I don't think Aizawa-sensei would appreciate me doing this though."

"Yes, you are right about that."

"Well anyways, have a good day Yaoyorozu-san." Midoriya gave her a quick wave before powering up his quirk and dashing off to God knows where.

Yaoyorozu stood there for a few seconds as she thought about what had just happened. It certainly wasn't like the boy to do something like that. Sure, she appreciated the assistance seeing as she probably just gained an additional thirty minutes onto her day. But it was still pretty confusing. Deciding not to dwell on it for too long, the _'creation'_ quirk user gave a shrug before lifting up one of the boxes to take it into the supply closet.

_'Well…at least I don't have to worry over moving the rest of these boxes.'_

* * *

Friday after class was over, Kendou and Midoriya packed their backpacks and rushed over to Shimane to officially kick off their work studies. It took them a bit longer to get there due to the liveliness that came along with the start of the weekend, but that did little to bring down their excitement.

"It's about time you two showed up." Yuuto greeted his two newest headaches with a slight groan. The silver haired man looked as if he was just brought back from the dead.

"Hey you two, are you ready to get started?" Sen gave them a warm smile, the woman was practically glowing for some reason.

"Of course we are! I can't wait to get out and start doing some actual hero work!" Kendou pumped her fist a couple of times.

"Sorry to break it to you kid, but I'm not letting either of you rookies go out on patrol with me until I get a full assessment of what you can do." Yuuto immediately shot back.

"Huh?"

"You may have gotten your provisional licenses, but that doesn't really mean anything if you can't handle yourselves out there in the real world."

"So what are we going to do?" Midoriya asked.

"Since Friday nights are pretty busy around here, we're going to stay inside to pretty much train and study."

"What kind of training?" Kendou asked, very interested in what the silver haired hero had in mind.

"Today we're going to keep it simple. All we're going to do is hand-to-hand combat without our quirks. I want to see what you guys got."

Kendou couldn't help but smirk at this. Hand-to-hand combat was her bread and butter after all. And based on what she's heard from Midoriya, Yuuto was pretty damn good. Not only was she finally going to get a chance to cut loose when it came to martial arts, but she was going to go up against someone more on her level.

"Fine with me, let's get started."

* * *

The two students quickly changed into their workout clothes and made their way downstairs to the training room where Yuuto and Sen were already waiting on them. The silver haired man was stretching on the floor in preparation while the blonde was sitting on a chair scrolling through her phone.

Kendou and Midoriya wasted no time in joining the man in his warm up. Only taking about ten minutes to get stretched out and limbered up. The entire time though, the orange haired teen was doing her best not to outright check out Midoriya in front of their mentor. However, the _'drain'_ quirk user did notice the few slip ups that she did have.

_'Oh man, she's almost as bad as Sen.'_

"Alright, do you two still need to get warmed up or are you good to go?" Yuuto asked as he pushed himself up onto both feet.

"I'm good to go." Kendou replied before looking to Midoriya. "What about you?"

"I'm ready."

"Sweet, alright let's get this party started."

"Wait, you mean the both of us?"

"Yeah…."

"Are you sure?"

Yuuto couldn't help but laugh at this, which made Kendou even more confused. "Of course I am. What, do you think that I can't handle taking on a couple of teenagers by myself?"

Hoping to not offend him more than what she already has, Kendou quickly apologized. "I-I didn't mean it like that."

"It's fine." The man waved off. "To be honest, I doubt that either of you two will actually be able to land a solid hit on me anyways."

"That sounds like a challenge." She gave him a slight smirk.

"Hmm." Yuuto tapped a finger to his chin in contemplation for a moment. Just then, a devious thought popped into his head. "That doesn't sound like a bad idea. Tell you what, if you manage to knock me out you can go on patrol by yourselves tonight."

"Seriously?"

"Of course."

"And if we lose?" Midoriya followed up.

"_When_ you lose, the two of you have to make dinner tonight."

"I like the sound of that!" Sen echoed from the other side of the training room. It was her night to cook and she definitely wasn't in the mood for that. Especially since she still had papers to grade.

The two hero students looked at each other for a second to weigh their options. On one hand, two against one without using their quirks was definitely favorable. On the other, the fact that Yuuto was confident enough to make this bet was a bit concerning. In the back of his mind, Midoriya had the sneaking suspicion that they were being set up. But, with the determined look that Kendou was giving him, he really couldn't bring himself to say no.

The green haired teen gave her a nod and that was all that Kendou needed. "Let's do it."

All Yuuto did was give a lazy shrug before crouching down into a fighting stance that Kendou couldn't really identify. Her best guess was that it was some variation of a Muay-Thai stance. "Alright, I'm ready whenever you are."

The two teens got into their stances and began sizing up their opponent. Their strategy was pretty self-explanatory, keep him distracted and try to overpower him. With her guard up and her feet square, Kendou began shifting over to the right while still maintaining her distance. Although she had no clue what Yuuto's fighting style was, she knew her partner's well enough. When it came to hand-to-hand combat, Midoriya was a defensive minded person. So it was a safe bet that he wasn't going to make the first move.

There was a slight pause before Kendou got the party started.

With a quick lunge, she closed the distance between her and Yuuto and threw a left jab, only for the man to easily dodge it by shifting himself over to the left. However, thanks to the position that she was in, Kendou side stepped him and threw another punch. Yuuto was able to throw up his guard in time and block it, but he was definitely impressed at the girl's reflexes.

_'I guess she's not a third place junior martial artist for nothing.'_

Right when he was about to make his move, out the corner of his eye, Yuuto noticed Midoriya approach him and drop to the ground in an attempt to sweep his legs. And with little effort, he jumped just high enough to avoid the kick while pushing Kendou onto the ground.

The _'drain'_ quirk user sized the two of them up for second, but just as he was about to make his next move, Midoriya rushed forward and unleashed a barrage of well aimed kicks that forced him to fall back.

_'Interesting, he usually waits until the fight comes to him. And his kicks are more crisp than I remember.'_

"Hmm, I see I might have my work cut out for me." Yuuto gave the two a smirk.

Deciding to skip the witty banter, Kendou and Midoriya both charged at him from different sides. Yuuto got into his stance and prepared for what was to come.

Kendou was first to attack. The orange haired girl started off with a direct kick aimed towards his chest, yet that was easily dodge. But just as he turned his body around, Yuuto saw Midoriya's left fist coming directly for his face. In one fluid motion, the man ducked just before raising himself back up using both open palms push Midoriya in the chest. Not one to miss an opportunity, Kendou immediately followed up by attempting her signature head wrap. The girl managed to achieve the hold for a split second. But thanks to his superior strength, Yuuto simply used her momentum and spun around, throwing Kendou directly at Midoriya in the process. The two teens landed on the ground with a hard thud as the quirk inheritor caught her mid-air.

Deciding that he had seen more than enough, Yuuto took the offensive.

In what Kendou could only describe as masterclass display of speed and grace, the pro hero dashed towards the both of them and spun his entire body in a way that one would describe as "beautiful".

Yuuto started off with a downward kick that definitely would've left one of them unconscious if it hadn't been for Midoriya grabbing Kendou and rolling the both of them out of the way before it landed. And before either of them could fully recover, they were met with a flurry of jabs and knees that forced them to retreat and split away from each other.

Midoriya ended up being first on the pecking order. Yuuto moved towards him with a surprising level of speed and geared up for a punch. The boy threw his guard up in anticipation, but that proved to be a mistake as the momentary loss of vision left him wide open for a right shin to the gut. Midoriya felt all of the air escape his body as he dropped to his knees in defeat.

Kendou watched this happen, and for a brief moment she recognized exactly what kind of fighting style the man was using. But she didn't get a chance to think about it any further because Yuuto was right on top of her in an instant. She reacted quick enough to attempt another punch. But right when her arm extended towards him, Yuuto quickly grabbed it and used his opposite hand to chop her in the crux of her shoulder. Kendou let out a pained groan only half a second before her entire body was lifted off of the ground. All she felt after that was her back slam into the floor followed by a gut punch that robbed her of all the oxygen in her lungs.

With both of his new minions now down for the count, Yuuto let go of Kendou and stood up. Feeling pretty satisfied with the result. "I think that's enough for now, I saw all that I wanted to see."

"T-that fighting style…" Kendou moaned as she regained her ability to breath. "I've s-seen it before."

"Yeah, it's _"Northern Shaolin"_ style." He responded.

"What?" Midoriya asked from his position of the other side of the room.

"It's a type of Chinese martial art. Not a lot of people practice it nowadays."

"She's right." Sen interjected. "Yuuto's a black belt in that style. There are a ton of different variations of it, but his personal favorite is _"Chuojiao"_."

"That's amazing!" Kendou looked to him in awe. Very few people are able to learn that type of fighting, especially nowadays since most everybody prefers to fight with their quirks. She knew the guy had to be good, but she never expected him to be that good.

"Eh, not really." Yuuto gave a lazy shrug. "Most pros don't bother learning any specific form of martial art, but a lot of us still find its uses. Even Sen has a balck belt in _"Baguazhang"_."

"Are you serious?"

"It's compliments my quirk pretty well, so I decided to study it." The blonde haired woman explained.

To say that Kendou was floored by this information would be an understatement. Not only were these two very capable heroes from what she knew, they were experts in some pretty awesome forms of fighting. Now she was even more excited about doing this work study than she was before. She wondered if she could convince one of them to teach her some new moves to add to her repertoire.

"Alright, I win." Yuuto stated. "You two have to make dinner tonight."

"Wait, that was it?" Kendou gave him a questioning look. She was more than ready to go another few rounds.

"Yeah, I'm actually pretty tired so I only had enough left in the tank for one round." The man shot an accusatory look to his wife. Causing her to look away with a devious grin.

Sen then made her way over to the group and handed Kendou about 20,000 yen. "Here's the money for dinner. You guys can make whatever you like and can pocket the rest."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, why not? Use the leftover cash to go on a date before you get back." The blonde haired woman gave her grin with a not-so-subtle wink.

Kendou and Midoriya both blushed at the woman's words. But neither one of them were going to deny the opportunity at spending some alone time together. "T-thanks."

"Have dinner ready by sundown. I'm gonna go take a nap." Yuuto said before leaving the group to head up to his room. This left the two of them a good four hours to go out, get whatever they needed and prepare dinner.

"Have fun you two~." Sen gave them a quick wave before following her husband upstairs.

Kendou and Midoriya looked at each other for a moment before deciding what to do next.

"So...what are we going to make?" She asked him. Cooking definitely wasn't her strong suit so she hoped that the boy took after his mother when it came to that specific area of expertise.

"How about salmon and fried rice?" He suggested. "It's simple, but it's pretty good."

"Sounds good to me."

* * *

After showering and getting changed, the young couple wasted no time in getting everything that they needed to get dinner ready. Overall, it was a pretty simple outing. And the market was relatively empty thanks to the majority of the town spending their Friday afternoon in other places.

On the way back, the two of them decided to stop at smoothie stand to chill out for a bit and rest their feet. Midoriya opted for mint chocolate chip while Kendou chose the coffee and vanilla flavor.

"Well, I guess our first day was a success. Minus the part where we got our butts kicked." Kendou said in between sips.

"I can't argue with you there."

"So have you decided on whether or not you want to do Uwabami-san's modelling thing?" She asked. The two hadn't really discussed the topic the entire week since they were busy with class. But now was as good a time as ever to come to a decision.

"Honestly, no."

In truth, Midoriya was still on the fence about the entire thing. Modelling certainly wasn't something that he ever considered doing before. That kind of thing was usually reserved for people that were way more better looking than him. It was definitely something that he could see Kendou doing in the future since she was so attractive, but not him.

"Hey, I get why you wouldn't want to do it. It may be for a good cause but it would be pretty annoying."

"W-what about you? Have you thought about it?"

"To be honest, I wanted to see what you were going to decide." She told him.

"Really?"

"Yeah." She gave him a smile.

Of course Kendou had her own reservations about the whole thing. Last time she posed in front of a camera wasn't the greatest of experiences. But the check she got from Uwabami's agency afterwards definitely made up for it. However, if she was going to subject herself that special form of torture once again, she didn't want to do it alone. And it seemed like a good way for the two of them to bond.

Suddenly, an idea popped into her head. It was lazy, but pretty straightforward. "Hey, I have an idea. Why don't we just flip a coin?"

"Huh?" He gave her a slightly bewildered look.

"Let's flip a coin." She repeated as she pulled a one hundred yen piece out of her pocket. "Heads, we do it. Tails, we don't."

"Is this really the best way to decide?"

"Why not?"

Midoriya thought about it for a second as she waited for an answer. There were probably better ways to decide something like this. But if Kendou was willing to do it, why not? He gave her an affirmative nod and that was all that she needed to go for it.

"Alright, here goes nothing."

Kendou tossed the coin up and the two of them watched it spin in the air before landing right back into her open palm. They shared a quick look with one another before she revealed what the final verdict was.

"Heads." She simply said. Essentially accepting her fate.

"It sure is." Midoriya blushed.

"I guess we better tell Uwabami-san the good news." Kendou said with a bit of an awkward chuckle.

"I g-guess we're really doing this, huh?"

"Sure looks like it. I guess I should be glad though, I get to see my boyfriend dressed in something other than ironically named t-shirts."

"Boyfriend?"

"I mean, this is our second official date, kind of…." She blushed while scratching her cheek. "I m-mean, unless you don't_ want_ to my boyfriend."

"N-no I-I...I'd like that…." He sheepishly bumped his index fingers together.

The orange haired teen couldn't help but smile at this. If she was being honest, it felt like a weight was lifted off of shoulders. Even though it wasn't like the two weren't already boyfriend and girlfriend, it felt nice having that bit of confirmation between the two of them.

"Come on, we should probably start heading back. Dinner isn't going to cook itself."

All Midoriya did was give her a nod before the two stood up and began making their way back to the house. While they were navigating their way through the city streets, Kendou took it upon herself to grab Midoriya's hand, interlocking their fingers together. It was only their second time doing something like this, but she was definitely looking forward to more of it in the future.

* * *

After returning from their impromptu date, Midoriya and Kendou successfully managed to make dinner without burning the entire building down in the process. Yuuto complimented them by saying that he didn't totally hate their cooking, so they chalked it up as a win.

Once the food was put away and the dishes were cleaned off, the newly official couple spent the rest of their Friday night sitting on the sofa in the living room while watching yet another bad movie. This time it was the cinematic masterpiece known as "Final Destination". At some point they both ended up passing out on each other. With Kendou leaning on Midoriya's shoulder. All in all, it was a pretty good day.

***Click!***

The sound of Yuuto's phone camera going off along with a flash of light did nothing to disturb their peaceful slumber.

"What are you doing?" Sen asked her husband who was doing his best not to burst with laughter.

"I'm sending this to his mother." He simply replied, his fingers already flying across the phone screen into his contacts list.

"Are you serious?"

"Think of it as payback for dinner."

"You're so evil~." Sen gave him a playful nudge right before telling him to send her the photo so she could send it to Uwabami.

* * *

"I must say Inko, this dish is amazing!"

"Thank you Toshinori-kun. I've been meaning to try out a few dishes from those American cookbooks that you got me for my birthday."

"Well I'm glad to see that you're putting them to good use."

"Yes, well now that Izuku is living in the dorms I have plenty of time t-"

***I AM HERE! A TEXT MESSAGE IS HERE!***

"Hmm, I wonder who that could be." The Midoriya matriarch wondered out loud before grabbing her cellphone. She unlocked to phone screen before opening up the messaging app to see what was going on. And almost immediately the woman dropped to her knees and opened up a flood gate of tears the likes of which the world had never seen.

"Inko, what's wrong?!" A very concerned Yagi rushed to her side.

"M-my baby's growing up too fast!"

* * *

The first thing that Kendou realized when the waking world demanded her attention, was that she was warm. Like, really warm. And comfortable. Also, that whatever she was laying on was absolutely perfect. Firm, but not rough. And really smooth.

The orange haired teen let out a soft groan as she made an attempt to push herself up, only to find her arms were wrapped around something really solid, and really comfortable. Whatever it was that she was laying on, she honestly didn't want to let go of it. What was even better was that her pillow was exactly the way she liked it. Smooth and sturdy. And, for some reason it had the lovely aroma of apples and cinnamon.

_'Hold on...apples and cinnamon.'_

The girl's eyes blew open once she realized exactly what was going on. Which may have been a mistake seeing as there was as a beam of light angled directly into her eye. Hoping to whatever deity that may have been out there that she was wrong, she slowly turned her head and immediately felt her entire body heat up once her vision cleared up.

Her worst fears were confirmed when she saw that instead of a comfortable bed with a nice pillow, she was laying on top of Midoriya who was still fast asleep. More accurately, she was wrapped around him like a sloth to a tree branch. It was then that she realized that her predicament was slightly more precarious when she became aware of where the green haired boy's hands were. One arm was wrapped around her waist, while the other hand was placed right on top of her butt.

The girl's brain froze as she tried to process everything that was happening. Here she was, in the living of her mentor's home, laying on top of her newly confirmed boyfriend's body, wrapped around each other like a loving couple with her chin resting on top of his chest.

With as much grace as she could muster at the moment, Kendou used her free hand to prop herself up on the tiny space of cushioning to her right. The last thing she wanted right now was to wake him up and make this situation worse than what it already was. However, before she could snake her way out of his admittedly strong grip, Kendou's eyes began to wander far more than what they should have.

She looked down at Midoriya and the image of his body burned itself into her memory for the foreseeable future. She already knew that he was well built, that was no surprise. But looking at his bare arms and chest exposed through the holes in his tank-top sent her mind into a haze. She only really got a chance to his body once, and that was back at the camp. But now she had an almost unobstructed view of everything that he had to offer. And Midoriya certainly had a lot to offer.

For a solid ten seconds she studied the way that his muscles seemed to burst with power, even in his unconscious state. And it was only a few seconds later that she realized that her hand was now tracing over the outline of his bicep. The contact of his soft skin sent a wave of electricity through her fingertips. Even the scars that littered his body added a sense of ruggedness that she was enjoying.

_'Wait, what the hell am I doing?!'_ Kendou internally screamed once she came to her senses. Her head erupting into a shade of red that would put most tomatoes to shame. Of all the things that she should be doing right now, groping the boy's body was definitely not one of them.

As quickly as possible, Kendou wiggled her way out of his grasp and placed the blanket back over him. Where this blanket came from, she had no idea. But instead of worrying about that, she rushed over to the hallway to head to the bathroom in her room, where she was _supposed_ to have spent the night.

Kendou's still waking mind was running a mile a minute as she tried to piece together what exactly happened. One minute, her and Midoriya were watching a movie and talking. The next, she was waking up in a very dangerous position with him the next day. If it wasn't for the fact that they were both still fully clothed she might not have been able to handle all of this information.

Just as she came out of the staircase onto the next floor, to her disdain, Kendou had the unfortunate pleasure of running into Sen who had just walked out of her bedroom. The blonde haired woman noticed her a second later and immediately gave her a smirk that Kendou didn't like one bit.

"Oh Kendou, good morning." She greeted just before her smirk grew into a wide cheshire smile. "I imagine that you slept pretty well last night."

Kendou couldn't do anything but drop her shoulders in defeat. _'In too early for this shit….'_

Yup, this was definitely going to be a long weekend.

* * *

**Author's Notes: A bit of a Kendou-centric chapter this time around. I wanted to start of their work study with a quick bit of training, but I also wanted this chapter to have a good bit of balance between fighting and fluff. Even though I'm still pretty bad when it comes to writing out "fluff". Next chapter we're getting right into the action. Just to let you guys know, part of it will be Yuuto and Sen vs Midoriya and Kendou.**

**1\. So yeah...they're going to do the modelling thing. Like I said in the last chapter, I was going to leave it up a coin flip. So there you have it. How that's going to work out, I still have no clue. But...we're here now.**

**2\. While I was outlining this arc, I pretty much realized that it's definitely going to be the longest one in the story. There's a lot that's going to be happening and I don't want to rush it. I know that my chapter count is already pretty high, but I'm just going to roll with it to make sure that everything works out the way that I want it too. Sorry for all of you that don't like incredibly long stories. But I'm having fun with this so I really don't mind. I told you guys in the beginning that it was going to be a slow burn.**

**3\. Also, I've decided that this arc is going to be where Kendou learns about 'One for All' and we're finally going to get to part two of Midoriya's origin story. I have most have that chapter finished, but I'm still working out a few kinks.**

**4\. Next chapter we're going to see what the verdict on Bakugou is. Or part of it. I still don't like his character, but I feel like a lot of you will be happy with what happens.**

**5\. Once again, I left a couple of references in this chapter that I'm interested to see who notices. No one got it right last time, so the first person to get it right in the comments gets a prize and will have the chance to help me write the story if they want to. (For the record, the last one was a "Tokyo Ghoul" reference to Toga smelling the blood stained napkin. I'm surprised that no one caught that.)**

**Like always, thank you for reading and don't be afraid to leave a review. Some of you guys have a habit of predicting what I'm going to write so they help me stay on my toes**


	36. Yakuza Arc: Part 4

After recovering from her morning meltdown and getting some much needed breakfast, Kendou and Midoriya were instructed to head down to the training room for their next session. It didn't take her long to get ready, so the girl quickly made her way down the steps towards the basement. Right before she was about to set foot out of the corridor into the room, Kendou heard the familiar voices of Yuuto and Midoriya from around the corner.

"...see, that is certainly an interesting development." Yuuto's voice said with a bit of a perplexed tone.

"Yeah." Midoriya responded.

"I can't really be surprised though. With how your quirk works, something like this should have been predicted."

Kendou stopped just shy of the entrance as she listened to what the two were saying. They were talking about Midoriya's quirk? What for? And what kind of "interesting development" was Yuuto talking about? Of course Midoriya's quirks were strange, granted there were plenty of people with multiple quirks.

"I've been meaning to ask you something. Do you know what Rokuto's quirk was?" The boy asked with a serious tone.

_'Who's Rokuto?'_ Kendou wondered.

"He had a mid-level regeneration quirk. When it comes to my mom's side of the family, all of them have similar powers. It's where the healing aspect of _'drain'_ comes from." Yuuto explained.

Kendou was actually surprised at hearing this. She knew that the silver haired man had a powerful quirk, but having a regeneration ability on top of being able to steal people's stamina? She couldn't help but think that kind of quirk was overpowered. But why were they talking about this?

"I guess you lucked out then huh, kid? When you think about it, this kind of makes us like cousins...in some weird roundabout way." The man joked.

"Wait, if he had a regeneration quirk then how was he beaten by All for One?"

There was that name again, "All for One". She remembered back at the mall when Midoriya mentioned it after being confronted by Shigaraki. Was that a person?

"Regeneration has its limits, especially when you get your head chopped off."

"I see…"

Kendou's mind paused for a second after that. Something was weird about this conversation. That much was clear. Why were the two of them discussing their quirks like this, and what did you Yuuto mean when he said that him and Midoriya were like cousins?

Deciding that eavesdropping on what was probably meant to be a private conversation wasn't a good idea, the girl let out a slight sigh before walking into the room to make her presence known. Pretending as if she didn't just hear the last part of their talk.

When she entered, she saw Yuuto, Sen and Midoriya huddled together in the center of the room. All of them were in their workout clothes and the blonde haired woman was stretching on the floor next to the two men.

"Ah, you're finally here. Good." The man greeted her.

"Y-yeah, so what are we going to be doing this morning?" She asked. Yuuto wasn't very forthcoming with their schedule for the day. All he said the night before was that it was going to be a little more intense than yesterday.

"Just a bit of combat training. Nothing too serious."

"Oh, cool."

"Alright, before we get started I need to know everything about your quirk." The silver haired man told her. "I have a good idea of what you can do, but it's been a while since I've seen either of you two so I'd like to know where you're at."

"Okay." She nodded. "Well, as you already know my quirk is _'big fist'_. I can enlarge my hands to a massive size. When they're like that, the overall strength and durability of them is increased by a lot. Right now I can crush concrete pretty easily and can hold up to about 115 kg in either hand. Unfortunately...I can't enlarge any other part of my body like that or focus it to any one finger." The orange haired teen explained.

"Pretty straightforward, but it has a lot of applications and usefulness." Yuuto commented as he turned his attention towards Midoriya.

"O-oh yeah. Since the last time I was here I've been able to up my control over my quirk. During the internship I was only able to safely use eighteen percent, but now I can use my _'Full Cowling'_ at twenty-two percent." The quirk inheritor explained.

"That's it?" The silver haired man questioned. That level of development, or lack thereof, was honestly surprising to him. "It's been well over a few months and all you've been able to improve was four percent?"

"Y-yeah…." Midoriya hung his head and dropped his shoulders. "To be honest, I feel like I've stagnated a lot ever since coming to U.A.. I haven't been able to train with the same intensity as what I use to with Toshinori-san and Sorahiko-san. Even with the high-density weights that Hatsume-san gave me for training, I can't safely use any more than that."

Yuuto gave him a sharp look before darting his eyes over to Kendou.

"I-it's fine. She knows that I used to train with the two of them." The green haired boy quickly waved off.

"Is that _all_ she knows?" Sen quirked an eyebrow at him.

"Yes..."

_'Okay, what was that about?'_ Kendou wondered. Something was off about that. Obviously there was something the three of them knew that they weren't telling her.

"Alright, back on topic. Why do you think that you've plateaued so hard? In a year you were able to get to eighteen percent. If we're going with that same progression pattern you should be well above thirty by now."

"I-I don't want to sound arrogant or anything, but when it comes to training in class...I never get a chance to push myself."

"I wouldn't doubt it." Yuuto nodded in agreement.

Kendou was honestly surprised at hearing that. She knew that Midoriya was powerful, hell everyone in school was aware of that. On any given day, he could probably take out their entire class if he wanted to. But she never considered that he never had the chance to cut loose before. The only time that she could recall him going all out was the exam against All Might. Just how much was he holding back?

"In addition to all of this, you've manifest another quirk as well. How are you handling that?"

Instead of a verbal response, the quirk inheritor held out his right hand and allowed _'black whip'_ to come forth. Everyone watched as small tendrils of dark energy danced between his fingertips before Midoriya released control over his new power.

"I've been able to call upon it relatively easy now. But I'm still not too comfortable using it against actual people. Regulating to amount of power I put into it is...difficult."

"I see." Yuuto rubbed his head in contemplation before deciding to move. He was satisfied with the information that he received so far. In truth, his main concern was whether or not Midoriya had good enough control over his new quirk to not be a danger to everyone around him.

"Well, now that we have all of that out the way, let's move on to part two of today's training."

"And what is that?" Both students inquired simultaneously.

"Two-on-two combat drills!" Sen cheered. Clapping her hands together with obvious excitement.

"Huh?"

"The two of you are going to spar with the two of us. Except unlike yesterday, you're allowed to use your quirks."

Kendou was quick to voice her concerns about doing something like that. "Isn't that kind of dangerous? Izuku alone could probably bring this entire house down, are you sure we should do that in here?"

"Don't worry about that. This entire training room was remodeled and constructed to stand the full force of a magnitude 9 earthquake." Sen said as she began cracking her knuckles. "Plus…it's been a while since I've been able to cut loose."

"So are you two up for it or not?"

Kendou and Midoriya looked each other's ways before giving the other an approving nod. They've had to deal with fighting pros before, so this was nothing new. And with some teamwork, they definitely had a good enough shot.

"Let's do this!"

* * *

The four of them split up into pairs and stood at opposite ends of the room. All the while, Sen and Yuuto were looking very confident about this entire thing.

"So...what's our plan, Izuku? You know their quirks a lot better than I do." Kendou whispered to her boyfriend. The last thing they needed was letting their strategy be known before they even started.

"As you know, Yuuto-san can take your stamina way in an instant. He has a limit to it, but it's more than what the two of us can handle. He doesn't need to touch us to do this, but he has a radius of about twelve meters. And when he uses it, he can't activate his quirk for five seconds."

_'Yup, definitely overpowered.'_ Kendou mentally deadpanned.

"Sen-san however, I don't really know a lot about her quirk other than she can make tornados at will. I've only ever seen her use it once, and that was when she made a small twister in the palm of her hand."

"So one has close range abilities, while the other has long range. This isn't going to be easy is it?"

"Probably not."

"So what should we do?"

"I've got an idea..."

While two of them were going over their strategy, Yuuto and Sen were patiently waiting on their end of the room. Essentially everyone's quirks were wild cards in this scenario. But they had the advantage of neither of the two students seeing Sen's quirk in action before.

"So...how are we going to do this?" Yuuto asked his wife.

"Let me take point." Sen shot back with a smirk. She had been wanting to test her mettle against the successor to the "Symbol of Peace" for a while now, but never got the chance. And she definitely wasn't about to miss this opportunity.

"Alright you two, that's enough prep time! If you don't get this party started, I will." She taunted them with a lazy hand on her hip.

The two students gave a quick nod before getting into their stances. As Sen sized up the two of them, she had a pretty good idea of what they were going to do. Midoriya was probably going to try and take the brunt of the load while Kendou would follow up when she wasn't expecting. It would be the most logical course of action to take. And sure enough, the green haired boy was the first to make a move.

Midoriya powered up _'Full Cowling'_ just as he stuck out his left arm with his middle finger tucked under his thumb. Going in head first was too risky. So his safest bet was working from a distance for the time being. **"10% Delaware Smash!"** The boy released an air blast towards the blonde haired woman.

But much to his and Kendou's surprise, right before the attack could make contact, Sen and Yuuto both became surrounded by a mass of wind violently rotating around their bodies. Effectively nullifying the attack.

"What the-"

"Did you forget that my quirk is wind related?" The woman laughed. "I call this my _"Cyclone Shield"_, I highly recommend that you don't try and touch it. The results could be...not to your liking." A devious smirk forming on her face.

Although he was surprised by this turn of events, Midoriya wasn't going to be discouraged. Air based attacks obviously weren't going to work, but he had another trick up his sleeve. In response to the woman's shield, Midoriya stuck out his hand one more time and the color of his electricity shifted from green to red.

_'That's new.'_ Yuuto raised an eyebrow at this development.

**"Whiplash!"** The boy shouted only a second before a large tendril of _'black whip'_ shot out of his arm straight towards the two pro heroes. However, the second the dark energy made contact with the mass of rotating air, it shredded into pieces.

"What the hell?" Kendou's eyes widened at what she had just seen. Midoriya's _'black whip'_ was strong enough to smash concrete. There was no way that it could've been countered so easily.

"I told you didn't I? Touching my _"cyclone shield"_ wasn't a good idea." Sen responded before releasing her quirk and undoing the barrier. "Lucky for you I can't hold that for very long."

"So, what are you going to do now?" Yuuto gave them a curious look. "Now that you've seen what Sen can do, that pretty much just confirmed that long range attacks are useless against her."

The two students would hate to admit it, but he was right. In all honesty they were banking on being able to use Midoriya's long range abilities to cover Kendou's assault. But now that was pretty much thrown out the window.

"I'll tell you what. Since I like the two of you, I'll give you a handicap." The blonde haired woman told them. "I won't use that move for the duration of the fight."

Part of Kendou wanted to feel insulted that the _'cyclone'_ quirk user was being so casual about this. But she was smart enough to realize that it was probably for her own safety. However, before she could even respond, Sen got into a boxing stance and began bouncing on her feet. The two students wondered what was she doing, but they immediately got their answer when the woman threw a right jab and a horizontal tornado shot out of her fist directly towards Midoriya.

**"Cyclone Buster!"**

Midoriya was able to dodge in time, but the blonde haired woman followed up with a barrage of similar attacks that kept him moving. It became pretty clear that she was focusing all of her attention onto him. Kendou was ready to jump in and make a move on Sen, but then Yuuto suddenly appeared in front of her.

"While she's taking care of your boyfriend, you're gonna have to deal with me." He said before throwing a punch aimed for head. Kendou managed to dodge it time and immediately began backing away. She couldn't let him touch her or else she'll get zapped of all her energy. So it became obvious that this was going to be a defensive battle.

What followed after was utter mayhem as the four of them used the entire area of the room to do battle. Midoriya was admittedly having a hard time finding a clear path to Sen due to her seemingly endless assault. While Kendou continued ducking and dodging to the best of her ability. She had a feeling that the _'drain'_ quirk user was holding back, but she wouldn't worry about that at the moment. Just as Yuuto extended his foot out towards her chest to deliver a kick, the girl managed to drop her hips and roll away from him.

With the space that the maneuver created, the _'big fist'_ user activated her quirk in both hands and used her new super move on him.

**"Thunder Clap!"** The girl shouted as she brought her palms together in a clapping motion with a ridiculous amount of force. Resulting in a small shockwave that was enough to momentarily disoriented the man. Yuuto stumbled back for second and Kendou wasted no time in delivering a double-footed chest kick that sent him flying into the ground.

This was enough for Sen to lose focus on her opponent long enough for Midoirya to power up to eleven percent and bounce off the wall behind her. The quirk inheritor used his momentum to ram into her with his left shoulder and sent Sen a good ten meters forward before stumbling onto the ground.

The two students used this time to regroup and get next to each other. Both of them sporting smiles on their faces at getting the upper hand in battle.

"Not bad rookie." Yuuto complimented the girl. Of course he was impressed that she would use her quirk in that way. It was a pretty good move. Kendou couldn't help but feel a bit of pride at successfully using her new technique in a fight. This gave her the confidence boost that she needed to try something else.

"Hey, Izuku. You want to try that thing we talked about the other day?" She looked to him with a bit of a smirk.

"A-are you sure?" He asked. Although he definitely wanted to try it, they never actually attempted it before.

"It may leave me out of commission for second, but it should work."

"Alright." He nodded.

The two of them proceeded to link arms together and Kendou enlarged her left hand. Naturally, this left Sen and Yuuto confused at what they were about to do. Then, Midoriya powered up his _'Full Cowling'_ to fifteen percent. What happened next was definitely a sight to behold.

In an instant, Midoriya used his feet to spin his body around at incredible speed while tighten his grip on Kendou's arm. With their increasing momentum, he began moving towards Sen while Kendou flatten out her palm to where it was facing in the direction that they were moving.

**"Combo Smash: Top Spin!"**

The blonde haired woman barely had enough time to throw up her guard before feeling the full force of Kendou's hand colliding with her body. Sending her flying into the nearby wall. Deciding to keep on pushing, the two of them began moving towards Yuuto. Kendou was starting to feel dizzy due to the speed at which she was being twirled around, but maintained her position. And Midoriya wasn't in any better shape.

Yuuto however, was not having it. Just before Kendou's palm could make contact, he dropped low to the ground to where his chest was touching the floor. Somehow managing to avoid getting hit. Fortunately for him, that was far as they were able to go. The second Midoriya stopped moving, the silver haired man hopped back up and dashed towards them.

Midoriya wanted to dodge the attack, but the world around him kept spinning. All the while, Kendou was in much worse condition. Yuuto was able to notice this in time and grabbed both of them by the arms before using an ultimate move of his own.

**"Pathway!"** The man stated.

In that moment, two things happened. The first was that Midoriya felt a significant amount of energy get sucked out of his body, forcing him to his knees. The second however, was a bit more interesting. At the same time that Midoriya felt the effect of Yuuto's quirk, Kendou experienced the exact opposite. In an instant, she felt a surge of power force itself into her body. Her muscles suddenly became heavy and she was even more lighthead than she was a moment ago.

Midoirya recovered just in time to look up at his partner and for a moment, he thought that his eyes were playing tricks on him.

Kendou looked...jacked.

"What the hell just happened?!" He looked to Yuuto who was now taller and more ripped than a second ago. But then his eyes immediately darted back to his girlfriend.

"Ugh...what did you just do to me?" The girl groaned out as she tried to stand up. It took a second for her vision to clear up. But when she finally looked down at herself, she almost yelped at what she was seeing. She felt like her body weighed a ton and her muscles were practically ready to burst. Whatever the hell their mentor just did, she did not like it at all.

For some reason, Midoriya felt his brain short circuit as he continued looking at Kendou and her rather...fit physique. They way her abs poked out through her fitted tank top and her now muscular thighs flexed with just the tiniest bit of movement was not lost on him at all. In fact, he was really enjoying the view. Did that mean that he was into buff girls? Granted he always thought that the pro hero Miruko was exceptionally beautiful, but-

_'Wait a second, this was not the time for this right now!'_ The boy mentally chastised himself before shaking those thoughts out of his head.

"I used my quirk to transfer some of the energy from his body into yours." Yuuto explained with a heavy sigh. "I took most of it for myself, but I reckon that I gave you about ten percent."

"A-are you serious?" Kendou looked back down at herself in amazement. She felt like her body was ready to collapse in on itself at any given second. If this only ten percent of the energy that Midoriya had in his body, then she was terrified of what all of it would feel like. "Am I-I...stuck like this?"

"No, it wears off after a while, but you if want to speed up the process you need to burn the energy off yourself."

"Thank god." The orange haired girl let out a sigh of relief. The last thing she wanted was to walk around like a bodybuilder for the rest of her life. People already called her muscular on a regular day, she probably wouldn't be able to handle everyone looking at her like some hardcore gymrat.

"Okay, what the fuck was that move you two just did?" Sen asked after peeling herself off the wall and joining the group.

"It was a combo move that the two of us thought up in class this week." Midoriya explained. "Itsuka was the one who came up with it and it seemed like a pretty good idea."

"That was pretty damn good if you ask me." Yuuto laughed. "To be honest, you had me worried for a second."

As much as Kendou wanted to be happy about getting praise from the silver haired man. There was still the minor issue of her newly acquired muscle mass. "So what do I need to do to get rid of..._this_?"

"Physical activity, essentially. I usually just head to the workout room and lift weights until I work it all out of me. You can take a crack it in a few minutes."

"Alright." The girl nodded before glancing over to Midoriya. Who for some reason was sporting a slight redness on his cheeks while looking away from her.

"Cool, let's stop right here for now and give Wonder Woman here a chance to get herself in order. After that, we're gonna grab a bite to eat before heading out on patrol."

That was more than enough for the two student's eyes to light up in joy at finally get a chance to go to work.

* * *

Three hours (And one ridiculously intense workout for Kendou) later. The three heroes were just about ready to head out for the night. Midoriya and Yuuto were already suited up and ready to leave. But they were still waiting on Kendou to walk out. The plan was to simply walk around for a bit to get a feel for what it was like to do street level patrols. And Yuuto gave the two of them permission to be on their own for a bit. So needless to say, Midoriya was pretty excited about the whole thing.

"Sorry I took so long, I was just making sure that everything fitted the way that it needed to." The voice of Kendou caught their attention.

The oranged haired hero-in-training walked out of the staircase to greet the two of them all while displaying her new and improved hero suit. Overall, there weren't many changes from the original design. But the alterations that were made were very noticeable.

The first obvious change for the girl's costume was that instead of the open skirt that her previous variation had, this new version came with teal pants that matched her top. However, she opted to keep the black corset that was designed to protect her midsection.

The most notable addition to her new outfit were the two collapsible shield-like guards that she now wore on both forearms. They were black with teal colored accents spread across to top layer, formed in a semi-hexagonal shape. It took a while for Hatsume to complete them, but now she had a support item that could be used with her quirk.

Midoriya took a moment to admire the girl's new suit. It was his first time seeing it and couldn't help but notice how the subtle changes made her look a lot more intimidating than before. He also couldn't help but let his eyes wander a bit at just how well she looked in those pants.

"Quick question...you two wouldn't happen to be "Marvel Comics" fans would you?" Yuuto asked both of them as he looked over their costumes.

"No, why?" Midoriya and Kendou tilted their heads in confusion.

"Nevermind." He quickly changed the subject as he turned his attention over to Kendou. "Anyways, what's with the new hardware?"

"Essentially, they're shields that can expand when I activate my quirk." She said before giving them a demonstration of her new toys. When she enlarged her right hand, the device expanded with it. Covering more surface area than it was a second ago.

"Cool." The _'drain'_ quirk user simply said before making his way over to the door. "When we're out there, try to not to do anything stupid. I'm giving you a lot of freedom because I trust you both to use sound judgment."

"Yes, sir!" The two of them said in unison as they followed behind him.

"Oh man, I'm so ready to actually do some real hero work!" Kendou smiled at Midoriya.

"Same." He agreed.

Thankfully, Saturday nights were pretty tame in Shimane prefecture. So it was expected to be a pretty chill time. Despite that, Midoriya was definitely looking forward to having a pretty easy night and getting a chance to do some good.

* * *

"Hey check it out. Itsuka and Wonderboy made it onto the news!" Tokage announced to the entire class while holding out her cellphone.

"Seriously?" Jiro asked, quick to pull out her own phone to see if it was true.

It was the Monday following their first weekend of the work study. The article in question was titled: _"Newcomers burst onto the scene to save the day!"_ and contained a picture of the two of them and Yuuto apprehending a car full of drug dealers close to the beach near the shopping center.

Shortly after beginning their patrol, Midoriya and Kendou came up on a street fight that took a turn for the worst when the two parties in question started duking it out in the middle of a crowded intersection. The two began firing off their quirks at each other and almost injured a few bystanders, but luckily the duo was able to react quick enough to put them down and keep everyone safe. However, they failed to stop the other gang members before they rode off in their getaway car. But Yuuto made it onto the scene in time to knock everyone out.

"Yeah, so did Tetsutetsu!" Kaibara also announced while showing everyone the article.

"That's right, what happened? My dad told me that Tamaki had to go to the hospital Saturday night." Kendou asked her silver haired classmate.

"We also ended up running into a gang of drug dealers at the festival. I texted Amajiki this morning and he said that he's fine." The _'steel'_ quirk user explained.

Kendou let out a short sigh of relief at hearing this. As embarrassing as it sounded, she completely forgot about it due to how crazy things got this weekend. "That's great to hear."

"Yeah, I'm just glad that I was able to use my new ultimate move to shield the civilians who got caught up in the middle of everything."

"What new move?" Honenuki asked.

"Oh yeah, I guess I haven't shown you guys yet have I?"

"Well don't leave us hanging. What is it?" Tokage demanded.

The silver haired boy gave them all a toothy grin before taking off his uniform jacket and rolling up his sleeve. He then activated his quirk in his right arm and waited for them to be amazed. "Check it out!"

To say that everyone was confused would be an understatement. All of them looked to the boy and then back at each other to see if anyone else figured out what he was doing.

"Okay?" Komori arched an eyebrow at him.

"Take a closer look." He told them.

"Hey…" Shoda was the first to point out after it dawned on him. "Your steel's a lot shinier than usual."

"That's because it's not steel. It's platinum!"

"Wait, what?!" Midoriya, Tokage, Honenuki and Shoda shouted simultaneously. All of them wide eyed as they tried to get a closer look at his arm.

"You were able to change your metal?"

"I'm confused." Shiozaki looked around for clarification.

Midoriya was the first to explain this new development to his vine haired classmate. "Platinum is more durable and has a higher melting point than steel. Essentially it's highly purified metal."

"How the hell did you manage to upgrade your quirk like that?" Tokage demanded answers.

"I've been working on building up my resistance to heat. But I also had to radically change my diet. I've been eating spinach, shellfish and aluminum pretty much for every meal. I can only hold this for about forty-five seconds before it goes back to normal."

"That's insane!" Kaminari half-shouted.

"Yeah, with this I've finally been able to step my game up."

"Man, everybody's been getting so powerful lately." Kaibara stated.

"Seriously." Tokage agreed. "First Wonderboy whips out a new quirk. Then Metalhead turns himself into a precious metal. What's next, Ibara's gonna start growing poinsoness roses out of her head?"

While everyone was giving Tetsutetsu praise for achieving his new transformation, Kendou's face dropped to a solemn expression as she looked down at her own hand. She would never admit it out loud, but she was jealous that so many of her classmate's had such flashy and versatile quirks. She always loved her own quirk, but compared to others it was rather lackluster.

Her mother could drastically increase her muscle mass for a few minutes and her father could extend his limbs an additional four meters. The product of that was _'big fist_'.

Her quirk was more than perfectly suited for hero work, which is what people had always told her. And it certainly had its uses when it came to martial arts. But, its simplicity often had her feel inadequate at times. Especially with guys like Midoriya and Todoroki who had multiple quirks, both powerful in their own right.

A part of Kendou knew that she shouldn't be taking any part of her gift for granted. That was especially true after hearing what Midoriya and Yamanaka had to go through for simply not having a quirk at all. But she could never shake the feeling of comparing herself with others when it came to something like this. All she could do was punch people really hard and crush things pretty easily, while others could move at super speed at create entirely new objects on a whim.

Kendou quickly shook those thoughts out of her head before Ectoplasm came into the classroom and ordered everyone into their seats.

"Alright, students settle down. It's time for everyone's favorite subject, math! I hope you studied this weekend, because today we're having a pop quiz."

Jiro let out a very audible groan and resigned herself to her fate.

* * *

_~A few days later~_

Midoriya, Kendou, Tokage and Tetsutetsu all received texts from their heroes to report to a specific location immediately after class was over for the day. Whatever was going on, they didn't need to bring their heroes costumes.

"Where are you guys headed off to?" Tetsutetsu was the first to speak up.

"No clue, Siphon just sent us this address and said to get there as soon as possible." Kendou flashed him her phone screen.

"Hey, let me see that." Tokage read over the screen before giving a confused look. "Huh, Ryukyu sent me the same address."

"Hey, same for me!" Tetsutetsu showed them on his phone.

"I guess we're all going to the same place." Midoriya said as the group made their way to the front gate. Coincidentally, Uraraka was standing at the entrance waiting for them to show up.

"What's up Ochako!" Tokage gave the brunette a wave.

"Hey, did you get that text from Ryukyu-sensei too?"

"Yeah."

"Wait, are you both doing your work study with Ryukyu?" Midoriya asked. Earning a nod from both girls.

"Do you know what's going on Uraraka-san?" Kendou inquired.

"No clue." The class rep of 1-A gave her a shrug.

Deciding not to waste any more time, the group of students all made their way over to the train station. For the most part they just chatted about regular school related topics. But Kendou took the opportunity to ask something that was on her mind for a while.

"Hey Uraraka-san, who all passed the provisional license exam for your class? I heard that only eight of you guys made it this time around."

"Oh yeah, Tokoyami-kun did say that all of you passed." The girl responded before holding up her fingers to list off the other students. "Well there's me, Tokoyami-kun, Pony, Tsuburaba-kun, Kamakiri-kun, Monoma-san, Shishida-san and Toru."

"The three stooges all managed to pass?" Tokage laughed as she tried to figure out how Monoma, Tsuburaba and Kamakiri all found a way to snake their way into getting their provisional licenses.

"Yeah, after the test started none of us were really prepared to get swarmed by everybody from Ketsubutsu. If it wasn't for Tokoyami-kun shielding me with his quirk, I definitely would've gotten knocked out."

"Can't argue with you there. If Midoriya and Itsuka didn't tell us all to stick together when everything kicked off we might not have survived."

"Well, everyone else has the chance to take the make-up test next month. I think they'll all make it this time around."

The group continued talking amongst themselves as they enjoyed the rest of the train ride. And as if things weren't already weird enough. Once everyone left the train station in Kensai and began walking down the street, they ended up running into the Big Three.

After their brief introductions with each other, the mob of students finally made their way to their destination. And much to Midoriya's surprise, their rendezvous point was none other than the "Nighteye Hero Agency". The boy felt a lump suddenly appear in his throat seeing as this might have been the last place that he ever wanted to set foot in. He had only ever met the green haired man once, but that single meeting along with Yagi's explanation of his behavior was more than enough to let him know exactly where the two of them stood.

Togata ended up leading everyone to the main conference room and they were suddenly greeted with the sight of all of their mentors, along with a few notable local and top ranked heroes. Even Aizawa was amongst their ranks.

"Sir, what's going on?" Midoriya asked Yuuto who was in the middle of a conversation with Ryukyu.

"I'll tell you once the meeting starts. Something pretty big is about to happen?" The silver haired man explained.

"This seems like a pretty serious group of people to put together." Tokage commented as she gawked at a few of the people talking amongst themselves.

While the speculation of what this meeting was all about was in full swing, Midoriya felt his blood run cold when a particularly elderly and nagging voice caught his attention. Of all the people that he did not want to run into today, this one was definitely near the top of the list.

"Ah, so you're the one that Toshinori told me about." The voice said in a tone that was somewhere between impressed and annoyed at being dragged all the way out here.

_'Oh no.'_ The boy began shivering as if the entire world was about to collapse on top of him.

"Yes sir, it's good to finally meet you face to face. I'm a huge fan of your work." Yuuto responded with a bit of a chuckle.

_'I'm screwed.'_

Kendou noticed this sudden change in her boyfriend's behavior and grew concerned. She had never seen him act like this before and wanted to know what had him so shaken up. "Izuku, what's wrong."

The quirk inheritor turned to her with what may have been the most grim expression she had ever seen before. There were beads of sweat forming on his forehead and his mouth suddenly went dry.

"Itsuka, i-if this is the last you see of me. I-I just want to let you know that I greatly valued our time together."

"What are talking about?"

"It's just that I- ack!" Midoriya couldn't finish his sentence before a yellow boot found it way to his face. Kendou, Tokage, Tetsutetsu and Uraraka all looked in shock at what had just happened.

"Didn't I already tell you that I don't like seeing you when I'm working you brat!" Gran Torino wasted no time in chastising this reckless idiot of a successor. Dropping back down to the ground while giving him a menacing glare.

"I'm s-sorry sir." Midoriya quickly apologized with a low bow.

_'What the hell?'_ The students thoughts echoed.

"Uh...what's going on?" Kendou looked to the elderly pro hero, hoping that he had a good reason for randomly shoving his foot in her boyfriend's face.

"Oh, you're the girlfriend I heard about, aren't you. You should know that you can do _much_ better than this fool right here."

Kendou's face immediately flushed after hearing that and Tokage was quick to give her a playful nudge to her arm. How and why Gran Torino of all people knew that they were dating was a mystery to her. But considering the fact that he had trained Midoriya along with All Might, it wasn't that far fetched. Wait, did this mean that Midoriya mentioned it to All Might? What about his mom? She hadn't told her parents that they were dating yet. Maybe that was something she should take care of before it's too late.

"Whoa! You're the guy that fought with All Might in Kamino Ward!" Tetsutetsu blurted out.

"How do you know Midoriya-san?" Uraraka asked him.

"I wasted a good year of my life training this idiot." The _'jet'_ quirk quirk user motioned over to the boy who was still shaking with fear.

"I-I wasn't expecting to see you here today, sir."

"I'm sure you weren't." He shot back. "And once we're done here, the two of us need to have a little talk. Or do I need to beat up and down the block...again?"

"N-no sir."

_'Holy shit, this guy's kinda scary.'_

_'Yeah...I'm just gonna stay out of this one.'_ Yuuto thought as he turned his attention away from the group. Gran Torino may have been old, but even he knew not to get on the man's bad side.

Before this madness could go on any further. The main door to the conference room opened up and drew everyone's attention. The heroes and students glanced over to see a tall man with green hair and yellow highlights sporting a white suit. The man that most everyone recognized as the pro hero Nighteye made his way over to the front of the room. However, as he walked passed Midoriya, the two of them shared a look that lasted only a second.

"Welcome everyone. We'll have to save the pleasantries for later. We have much to discuss…"

* * *

_~Earlier that morning~_

"And that is the situation that we currently find ourselves in." Nezu said while resting his head on the backside of his paws.

There very few times in his life that Katuski Bakugou was at a loss for words, and this was certainly one of them.

It was on video.

The entire argument was captured on video.

How did this happen?

One of those damn extras managed to sneak up on him and record his entire conversation with that useless Deku. Even his failed attempt at an attack was as clear as day on the footage. He had no idea who this brownnoser was, but he was certainly going to find out and show them what happens to someone who sticks their nose in his business. And in the back of his head, he had a sneaking suspicion that shitty Man-Hands had something to do with this. Of course that green haired nerd's girlfriend would pull something like this. Why wouldn't she?

But above all else, there was one thing that was absolutely clear in Katsuki Bakugou's mind at the moment. This was all Deku's fault.

"You just couldn't leave that boy alone, could you Katsuki?" Mitsuki Bakugou shot her son a disapproving scowl.

"Young Bakugou, I know that you don't want to hear any of this but let's review the information that we have available." Nezu began listing off things that Bakugou certainly did not want to listen to at this moment.

"From this video alone, there's evidence of you trespassing onto a school training ground after hours, unauthorized quirk usage, attacking another student with obvious intent to harm, and insulting one of our facility members when you referred to Inui-kun as "Dogface"."

"In addition to that, you gave a confession to past digressions against Midoriya. Of course we can't do anything about that now seeing as it was years ago. But it's just further evidence that your behavior has not changed, nor did you take my warnings about this matter seriously." Aizawa followed up with a cold tone.

In truth, the pro hero didn't really expect much change from the ashen blonde student to begin with. Asking Bakugou to adjust his behavior was like putting a bird in cage and telling it to fly.

"So what's going to happen to him?" Masaru asked.

"In short, your son will be kicked from the hero course here at U.A. effective immediately."

Aizawa's words were like a knife in the Bakugou's family's hearts. How could this have happened? How could things have come this far? Katsuki Bakugou was a prodigy. A rare talent that you'd be hard pressed to find anywhere else. All his life people told him that he'd become a great hero one day, and now his dream was in jeopardy of never seeing the light of day.

"However, what happens next is up to you." The night time hero continued, regaining everyone's attention. "As of right now, you have a choice between two options. First, is that we outright expel your son from U.A. entirely and maybe you can try your luck at getting him into another hero school. But considering that this will go on his permanent file, we can't guarantee what will happen from there."

"What about the second option?" Asked Mitsuki as she tried to find a silver lining in this scenario.

"Option two, is that your son would be transferred into our general education course. From there, he would still have a chance at possibly regaining a spot in the hero course. However, as things stand...I can personally guarantee that I won't be making any recommendations for him. On top of that, Vlad, Snipe and Midnight are already well aware of the situation concerning your son as well. I wouldn't hold my breath on one of them doing so either."

"I see."

"Bakugou-san. I know this all must seem frustrating to you, especially after your son was kidnapped while under our supervision-"

"No Nezu-san, we understand. Our son made a decision to confront that boy even though he should've known better. And this is the most…appropriate course of action to take." The ashen blonde woman said through gritted teeth. Of course this entire thing was frustrating. But she couldn't argue with the facts. Her son willingly broke the rules in some foolish attempt at proving his superiority over someone he hated. And to add onto this, her worst fears were confirmed when he blatantly admitted to bullying said person for being quirkless.

A part of her was trying to figure out where exactly she went wrong when it came to her son. But now wasn't the time for this.

"I'm glad that you can be so understanding."

"We'll give you twenty-four hours to think things over. But we need an answer by tomorrow." Aizawa simply said.

"Yes, we understand. Thank you for taking time out of your schedule to talk to us about this." Masaru stood up before giving a polite bow to the two of them.

With that, the Bakugou family made their exit. Although he was doing his best to refrain from outright shouting at the teachers, in his mind Bakugou was ready to explode with anger. This wasn't supposed to happen. He was the best, and the best weren't supposed to be subjugated to the type of humiliation.

Back in the office, Aizawa and Nezu waited until they were certain that the three of them were out of earshot.

"So…do you think we made the right call?" Nezu looked to his teacher.

"Yes. The boy may have potential, but at this point he hasn't learned a thing when it comes to his behavior. To be honest, he's lucky that Midoriya chose not to fight him or else that entire situation would've been a repeat of the camp."

"There are still some concerns though."

"Yes...the last thing anyone needs is a boy with a hair trigger temper, overwhelming anger issues and a quirk perfect for terrorism to use this as fuel for any future crimes."

"I have a pretty good idea at what their choice will be. But we'll wait until tomorrow to see what he decides."

* * *

**Author's Notes: Two chapters in one weekend? Is it clear to you guys that I enjoy writing this story a lot? And that I may or may not have a social life.**

**1\. So like I said in the last chapter, a lot of things were going to happen in this arc. The first was the sparring session between Midoriya, Kendou, Sen and Yuuto. To be honest, I didn't originally plan on it being that long. But I kind of just ended up running away with it while I was writing. I mostly just wanted to show the new moves that the two of them learned. You'll be seeing those a few more times before the story ends.**

**(Yes, Yuuto's quirk is OP as hell. I need characters that can go toe-to-toe with Midoriya and I'm honestly just having fun with it.)**

**2\. How do you guys like Kendou's new costume? Before anyone asks, yes I totally based the design off of Captain America's Wakanadan Shields from "Avengers: Infinity War". I was watching the movie a couple of days ago and noticed how they could collapse and expand and thought it would make sense for her to have something like that. Plus it would suit her fighting style a lot.**

**3\. So yeah, Uraraka is also a part of the raid team. If you haven't already noticed, I'm starting the "Midoriya Redemption" part of this story. A lot of people love Uraraka, so I figured that she was the best one to play this role in the story. And you also got to find out who in 1-A passed the licensing exam.**

**4\. Before anyone comes at me about Tetsutetsu's power up. Yes, I am very aware that platinum is not an actual isotope/variation of iron, so logically he shouldn't have been able to upgrade his quirk like that. But he never really gets enough love in the show/manga so I thought it was a good idea. Plus it's a good mirror of Kirishima's "Unbreakable" form. I pretty much just used Avatar: TLOK logic and said that platinum was just highly refined metal.**

**5\. You all have seen the final verdict on Bakugou. I'll leave it up to you guys to decide his fate. Vote on it in the reviews.**

**-Option A: He leaves U.A. and tries to go to another hero school.**

**-Option B: He gets stuck in G.E. and tries to reclaim his seat.**

**I'll give it about a week before tallying up the votes.**

**Like always, thank you for reading and don't be afraid to leave a review.**


	37. Yakuza Arc: Part 5

"For the past few months, we here at "Nighteye Hero Agency" have been gathering information on a certain villain group known as the _"Shie Hassaikai"_." Bubble Girl said as she kicked off this party.

"A member of the street level gang, _"The Reservoir Dogs",_ mentioned something about that when we arrested them at the festival." Fatgum stated.

"We have been following their movements for some time now. Up until recently, their actions have all seemed to have the purpose of gathering funds and expanding their influence over various smaller organizations all over Japan." The sidekick Centipeder followed up. "However, a couple of weeks ago the leader of the Shie Hassaikai along with a few of his other associates came into contact with one, Jin Bubaigawara. The villain known as _"Twice"_ who is a known member of the _'League of Villains'_."

Everyone shared a couple of looks between one another as they absorbed this information. The League was already dangerous enough on their own. But if they were recruiting street gangs to have under their umbrella, then that didn't bode well for anyone.

"They were extremely cautious of being followed and I was unable to continue tracking them. But here I was still able to cooperate with the police. They were able to confirm that during this meeting some kind of skirmish occurred between the two groups." Centipeder continued.

"So because it's League related you decided to call me and Tsukauchi in." Sorahiko asked.

"And where is Tsukaichi now?"

"He's following up on information from other witnesses." The elderly hero replied before turning his attention over to Midoriya. "Izuku, you've been dragged into quite the annoying situation. I hope you realize how serious this is."

"Of course I do." Midoriya responded.

_'How does Midoriya know so many cool people?'_ Tetsutetsu thought to himself.

"Continuing on…" Nighteye interjected with an unimpressed scowl.

"Before this goes on any further, should we really be talking about this in front of these brats?" The pro hero Lock Rock blurted out. "They may be U.A. students, but this isn't the type of thing children should be a part of."

Before anyone could say anything, Fatgum stood up out of his chair and motioned over to Amajiki and Tetsutetsu. "Enough outta you, these two here are super important witnesses!"

"The two of us?" A now confused Tetsutetsu asked.

_'His enthusiasm is smothering.'_ Amajiki thought to himself as he tried to find the nearest hole to crawl into

After a very...interesting introduction. Fatgum proceed to literally throw candy at everyone.

Nighteye was next to speak up. "We have reason to believe that the Shie Hassaikai have made distribution of unlicensed goods a significant part of their business. As such, we have requested help from heroes within a similar line of work."

"Long ago we smashed those kinds of things to pieces. And then this weekend during Tetsutetsu's debut...Tamaki was shot with something the likes of which we've never seen before. A drug...that erases quirks."

In that moment, an overwhelming sense of dread fell over the entire room. Everyone was having a hard time believing something like that could even possibly exist.

"Wait, what?!" Kendou nearly jumped out of her seat as she looked to her long time friend and neighbor. "Tamaki, you're okay right?!"

"Yeah, it came back the next morning after sleeping." The pointy eared teen responded before producing a chicken's foot with his right hand.

"If it's only temporary then there's nothing to worry about." Lock Rock said after breathing out a small sigh of relief.

Nighteye then directed everyone to Aizawa, who explained the differences between his own quirk and this new weapon. From what he could tell, this new drug caused damage to a person's quirk factor instead of temporarily disabling it. Thankfully, Amajiki's own quirk factor had more or less fully repaired itself over the weekend.

"Thanks to Tetsutetsu riskin' his life to deflect one of these bullets, we were able to obtain da' contents of this weapon." Fatgum then announced.

"Seriously! That's crazy, I didn't understand any of that!" The _'steel'_ quirk user shouted in surprise.

"Nice job, Metalhead." Tokage bumped him on the shoulder with a toothy smirk.

The mood in the room shifted once again when Fatgum announced that the contents of these quirk erasing bullets contained human cells. It took a second for the students to process all of this, but a few of them quickly came to the realization that someone was using a person's body to develop these drugs. Kendou could already feel a pit begin to form in her stomach after hearing this.

And after a brief breakdown of the supposed distribution chain between various street-level organizations. Along with an explanation from Ryukyu on how these same groups were related to long standing _"trigger"_ epidemic that has been on the rise over the last few years. Nighteye took control of the conversation once again. Bubble Girl then flipped the screen to a picture of a young man with brown hair wearing something that looked like a bird mask.

"This is Kai Chisaki, the alleged leader of the Shie Hassaikai. His quirk and alias are labeled as, _"Overhaul"_." The green haired hero told the entire room. "He has the power to disassemble and reassemble any object at will."

"That sounds like one hell of a quirk." Yuuto spoke up for the first time in this meeting. He was making sure that he was taking all of this is in. Something this serious was more along him and his team's line of work.

"Just to let you know how powerful this man is, please recall our earlier mention of his recent meetup with the _'League of Villains'_." Nighteye continued as the screen flashed over to a picture of a destroyed warehouse. Along with two mugshots. One of which was a man that Kendou and Midoriya immediately recognized.

"In the aftermath of their fight. The remains of two members of the League were found at the scene. Kenji Hikiishi, more commonly known as _"Magne"_. And Ken Amaki, more commonly known as _"Spectrum"_, both had over sixty percent of their bodies completely destroyed."

_'Wait, Spectrum's dead!'_ Kendou thought to herself as she shared a look with Midoriya. It was hard to believe that the man who had caused the two of them such a huge problem was out of the picture, just like that.

"So I guess these two groups won't be working together anytime soon." Lock Rock said in a way that some would interpret as a joke. Then Nighteye decided to drop the next bombshell of the afternoon.

"Chisaki also has a daughter, one without a birth certificate so the particulars aren't clear. My intern Mirio had the unfortunate luck of running into her and Chisaki a couple of weeks ago while out on patrol. The girl had bandages all over her arms and legs."

"Wait a second." The lightbulb went off over Tokage's head. "If this Overhaul guy can disassemble and reassemble anything at will…" She started, a cold sweat now forming on the back of her neck.

"And those quirk bullets are made from human cells…" Uraraka followed up.

An eerie silence filled the room once the others began putting the pieces together themselves.

"I've ran into some pretty disgusting people in my life. But I never thought I'd hear about someone who would use their own child as a science experiment." Yuuto started with a fist clenched under the table.

"What did you expect in this world full of superhumans?" Sorahiko said.

"Guys, what're you all talking about?" Tetsutetsu looked around for clarification.

Kendou was the first to let her friend in on what exactly was going on. "T-they're using that girl's body to manufacture these bullets…."

"Holy shit…." The silver haired teen's shoulders dropped.

At the front of the room, Togata's face nearly hit the table as he dropped his head in shame. The kid that always seemed to be smiling look absolutely distraught. Amajiki placed a hand on his best friend's back in an attempt to console him.

"We can't confirm or deny whether or not that is true. But it's a reasonable hypothesis." Nighteye continued.

"Besides this Overhaul guy, do we have information on any other members?" One of the local heroes asked. Hoping to move away from this severely depressing topic.

"Yes, we do." Nighteye replied before directing his gaze over to Yuuto. "Siphon, would you please?"

"Of course." Yuuto nodded as he stood up from his seat and made his way over to the front of the room. Up until this point he had been wearing his helmet, but decided to remove it before sharing his piece.

_'Holy shit, this guy's hot!'_ Tokage grinned after finally seeing the man's face. Only slightly jealous that Kendou kept finding a way to spend time around attractive men. Unfortunately for her, she also remembered her best friend mentioning that he was recently married.

After a brief moment, Yuuto motioned over to Bubble Girl to change the slides. Once she did, a new mugshot took up the entirety of the screen. It was a photo of a muscular man with black hair and burgundy eyes. He looked to be in his late teens.

"This is Rikiya Katsukame…and he is my younger brother."

…

…

…

"What?!" Nearly everyone in the room shouted simultaneously after hearing that bombshell.

"I'm sorry, do you want to run that by us one more time?" Lock Rock asked what everyone seemed to be thinking.

"Like I just said. He's my younger brother. We have the same dad, but different mothers."

"Would you care to enlighten us as to why your _brother_ of all people is a part of the yakuza?" Rykuyu asked after recomposing herself.

"A few years ago after…_differences_ with our father, Rikiya ran away from home and went off the grid. Me and Uwabami have been searching for him ever since. However, trying to get a lock on his whereabouts has been difficult, to say the least."

Midoriya's mind flashed back to the time of his internship at the start of the school year. More specifically, their first meeting with Uwabami and the others. He wondered what the two of them were being so secretive about but didn't think much of it after that. _'I guess that's what was on that flash drive.'_ He concluded before another thought popped into his head. _'Wait, does he know about 'One for All'?'_

"Sir, are you saying that even _you_ had a hard time trying to find him?" Kendou asked the man. From everything she knew about Yuuto, he had a knack for getting information on people.

"It's easy to get information on someone who isn't hiding. It's harder to find information on those who don't want to be found." The man responded.

"So what can you tell us about him?" Ryukyu asked, hoping to bring the conversation back on topic.

"For obvious reasons I don't know what his personality is like nowadays. But I can tell you about his quirk, he calls it _'vitality stealing'_. Essentially, it's a weaker version of my quirk. But he needs physical contact to take peoples stamina away from them, whereas I don't. But he did inherit some aspects of his mother's strength enhancement quirk, which makes him ridiculously strong and durable. Recently he was spotted along with Overhaul in Fuchu."

"So it stands to reason that he has a pretty high ranking in this organization." Sorahiko concluded.

"Possibly."

"Other than Katsukame, do we have information on the other members?"

"Unfortunately we don't." Nighteye responded.

"Damn." A few others clicked their teeth.

After Yuuto sat back down, the group proceeded to put the plan into motion. Everyone present was to be on standby and await further orders. The plan was that once Nighteye and his people had gathered more information on the Shie Hassakai and their whereabouts, they would put out the call for everyone to reconvene at his agency before conducting a raid with the local police.

* * *

With their business for the time being concluded, the meeting was adjourned and everyone broke up into their groups to discuss what had been talked about during the meeting and exchange information with each other.

"Yuuto-san…" Midoriya gave his mentor a nervous look. "Does y-your brother know abou-"

"No. That matter only concerns my mom's side of the family. And like I said, we don't have the same one." Yuuto quickly assuaged his nerves.

_'What are they talking about?'_ Kendou wondered as she watched this brief exchange between the two of them.

It was blatantly obvious that there was something the two of them were keeping a secret from her. Of course it more than likely wasn't any of her business, but a part of her just couldn't help herself. Midoriya had already shared with her what was quite literally the darkest part of his life. So what was so secretive that he didn't want to tell her?

Deciding to just take a gamble and see what was up, Kendou walked up to her boyfriend and began speaking. "Hey Izuku, what are you gu-"

"Izuku Midoriya." Nighteye suddenly announced as he made his way over to their group. The green haired hero looked to be a man on a mission and his gaze locked on nothing other than Midoriya. In no time the two were face-to-face and everyone around them could feel the shift of tension in the air. "The two of us need to have an overdu-"

In the middle of his sentence, Nighteye attempted to reach for Midoriya's shoulder but his hand was quickly swatted away by the green haired boy.

"You know…it's rude to try and look into someone's future without their permission." Midoriya said with an edge to his voice that did not go unnoticed by the others.

The already tense atmosphere grew even stiffer as they both glared at each other. No one really knew what to do except wait to see how this would play out. The only person with any real idea of what was going on was Sorahiko, and even he wasn't sure how this was going to play out. Togata was analyzing this interaction with rapt attention because he himself was still curious about his mentor's interest in the first year.

Nighteye took a step back and readjusted his glasses before recomposing himself. "We don't have time for this foolishness. Come with me so we can discus-"

"I already know what you want to say to me, so there's no point in us talking." Midoriya shot back with a bit more venom than what was warranted. The longer Midoriya looked at the man who was so vehemently against him receiving 'One for All,' the more he could feel the buzzing in the back of his return. It wasn't as it intense as it had been previous times. But if his rising heart rate was any indication, it would be in his best interest to leave sooner rather than later.

Luckily, Yuuto decided that now was the time to get in between the two of them and stop something before it even started. "Look...we've all had a long day and everyone must be on edge about this entire operation. How about we just table this discussion for a later date and let the kids get back to school?"

"Yes, it appears that you are correct." Nighteye begrudgingly agreed.

"The rest of you kids can get going. Izuku, Siphon and I need to talk about something important. It won't be long." Sorahiko told the remaining U.A. first years.

They all gave him a set of affirmative nods before making their way out the door. However, Kendou let her eyes linger a second on her boyfriend before taking her leave. The two of them sharing a look that said: "We're going to talk about this later."

* * *

After exiting the building, the rest of the first years waited outside for their classmates. Midoriya was presumably still talking to Yuuto and Sorahiko. And Tetsutetsu stopped to have a quick chat with Amajiki.

"So…Kendou-chan. You and Midoriya-san r-really are a couple?" Uraraka asked her fellow class rep. More than a bit curious as to how the hell that union came to fruition.

"Yeah." The orange haired teen simply replied.

"Oh, well congratulations, I guess."

"T-thanks. It's still pretty weird hearing it out loud."

"I'm just surprised that it took them this long to make it official." Tokage sneered.

Uraraka blushed slightly more than her usually rosy cheeks showed while rubbing her arm. "Honestly, I'm kind of jealous. I don't think I'd be able to manage being in a relationship."

"What do you mean?" Kendou gave her a questioning look.

"I don't know…it just seems like it's something that would be a hassle to put up with. School is already hard enough as it is. Being in a relationship just seems like it'd get in the way of that."

"I don't really agree with that, Uraraka-san."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Don't get me wrong, I'm probably not the best person to speak about this kind of thing seeing we've only really been dating for a few weeks. But we both know how important school is. So it's not like dating would conflict with that."

"But wouldn't that get in the way of training and everything? What would you do if two you had to go up against each other?"

"We spar with each other all the time, I doubt it'd be much different than that."

"Oh…"

"Plus they're both already pretty smart, so it's not likely that their grades would start slipping. They're always studying on top of that. I mean, look at Nejire. She's dating that Yuyu chick and she's one of the top students in the school." Tokage added on.

"I guess you have a point." Uraraka relented. "Still, Midoriya-san is the last person I'd expect to be interested in that sort of thing. Especially since he's so…distant."

"Well Izuku's a lot different than he was at the start of the year."

"Seriously, the guy's a total cinnamon roll once you get to know him." Tokage laughed.

* * *

_~First Day of Class~_

_It was a few minutes after Class 1-A's quirk apprehension test with their new homeroom teacher, Shouta "Eraserhead" Aizawa. And needless to say that nearly the entire class felt like a weight had been lifted off of their shoulders when they learned that none of them were going to be expelled. For now…._

_Uraraka was pretty proud of her performance. She didn't get the top spot even after getting an "infinity" on the ball throw, but she was also nowhere near the bottom. So there was something to be said about that. First place however was almost no competition._

_Nearly every task was dominated by the green haired boy that saved her during the entrance exam. When Uraraka first noticed that the two of them were in the same class, she tried to talk to him and thank him. But due to their teacher showing up out of nowhere and rushing them to the training field, she didn't get the chance._

_But now that they were done and had the rest of the morning to mingle and get to know each other. She was going to seize the opportunity._

_"Nice job on getting first place!" She said after a slight jog to catch up to him._

_"Thank you." He dryly replied. The boy's voice was cold and almost indifferent. And he hadn't even bothered to look her way._

_"You practically blew everyone out of the water. You have a really awesome quirk, Deku-kun." She gave him a smile._

_At that moment, Midoriya stopped his feet and gave her a look that made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. Those seemingly empty green eyes of his were boring into her soul and she could feel the intensity radiating off of his body._

_"What did you just call me?"_

_"D-Deku-kun." The brunette repeated. "That's what that Bakugou guy called you. It's a pretty weird nickname, but has that 'You can do it.' kinda vibe y'know?"_

_"I'm only going to tell you this one time. Never…call me that name again. Okay?" He told her, his voice adopting a heavy bit of edge to it. If his goal was to intimidate her, then he definitely succeeded._

_"S-sorry." Uraraka let out with a slight shiver while subconsciously taking a step back._

_With that, the green haired boy walked off in the direction of the locker room. Leaving Uraraka and the other students nearby who just so happened to witness that short interaction absolutely stunned._

* * *

"I'll just your guy's word for it." Uraraka laughed, getting Kendou and Tokage to join her for a minute. Although that particular topic was still somewhat of a sore spot for her at the moment. She couldn't help but find it kind of inspiring seeing two people that were in the same boat as her managing things so well.

* * *

After returning to the dorms, Kendou was quick to drag Midoriya up to her room to talk to him. Ever since they left Nighteye's agency, the boy was noticeably more tense than usual. Something about that whole interaction between him and the pro seemed way too heavy for just some regular disagreement and she need to know why.

"So, what was that whole thing between you and Nighteye?" She folded her arms with a puzzled look on her face. In hindsight, the direct approach might not have been the best idea. But it was the simplest course of action.

"It was no-"

"Don't you even try it." She interrupted him before he could write the entire thing off. "That was a lot more than just _"nothing"_, Izuku. If anything it was _"something"_."

"It's…c-complicated." Midoriya let out a heavy sigh.

"I wouldn't doubt it. Which makes it even more confusing. I looked him up on the way back and Nighteye used to be All Might's sidekick up until about six years ago. I would think that you'd be on good terms with someone like that. But obviously that's not the case."

Midoriya paused for a moment as he tried to figure out the best way to word his response. He wasn't sure how much of the whole thing he wanted to tell her. So he needed to be careful about what he was going to say.

"Look, I want to tell you. B-but it's not the easiest to explain."

"Why not?"

"Because…."

Kendou could almost see his shoulders tense up as the gears began turning in his head. Something heavy was on his mind, that much she could tell. And with everything he had been through so far, the last thing he needed was an apparent grudge rearing its ugly head. In that moment she decided to take the initiative and grab his hand, looking him straight in the eye with an expression that was somewhere in between determined and caring.

"Izuku, you trust me right?" She asked him.

"Yeah." He nodded. Of course he did, he wouldn't have told her one of his biggest secrets if he didn't.

"And even though we are dating, we're still friends. And friends are supposed to be there for each other when something is bothering them."

"Y-yeah."

"So why don't you just tell me what's bothering you? It's better to get this kind of stuff off your chest before you explode. You know you're going to have to run into Nighteye again pretty soon. And a repeat of today wouldn't be good."

Midoriya scanned her face for a second before letting out another sigh. This one not as heavy as the one before, but it definitely still conveyed the level of stress that he was feeling.

"It's just that…Nighteye didn't really approve of Toshinori-san training m-me when I got my quirk." He started off.

That was more than surprising to Kendou. What reason could the man have for not wanting the green haired boy to train under Yagi? Based on what she had seen earlier, Nighteye did look down at him with a slight bit of contempt. If that was even the right word for it. And he did try and use his quirk on him without warning.

"Why not?" She tilted her head.

"I g-guess the short answer would be that h-he doesn't think that I'm worthy."

The orange haired teen quirked an eyebrow at him. What did that even mean? Why wouldn't Midoriya be worthy enough to train under All Might? They had similar quirks, and tactically he was a genius when it came to putting a strategy together. He may not have been as loud and boisterous as the former 'Symbol of Peace', but she had seen him stop a little girl from crying and inspired her better than she ever could.

"And why would he think that?"

"Because, he believes that I can't inspire people the way that Toshinori-san can."

"Is there a reason for that?"

"My best guess is that he doesn't think some suicidal teenager with an axe to grind against people with powerful quirks deserves to train under someone as great as All Might. He'd rather have Togata-san in my place."

"All Might couldn't just train the both of you? Togata-san's a pretty cool and inspiring guy from what Tamaki's told me. Plus you two are definitely on the same level, power-wise. It shouldn't be that big of a deal."

"The thing is…" He paused as he felt the blood begin to rush to his head. Was he really about to do this? Was he really about to tell her? He hadn't even entertained the thought up until now. Nor had he even remotely cleared this with Yagi.

Right before he could stop himself from going on any further, a thought popped into his head. Yagi had people that he divulged his secret to. Why couldn't he? Kendou was someone that he could trust. Not just because of their relationship, but because she was his friend. And judging by the fact that she hadn't told anyone about his other secret, she knew how to hold her tongue.

"The t-thing is…this type of training could only be done by one person, not two." He said, that was probably the easiest way to start off this explanation.

"Okay?"

"And it's because of my quirk."

"Yeah, you and All Might have similar quirks. So what?"

"A-actually...we don't have similar quirks. We have the _same_ quirk." He responded.

"Izuku...last time I checked, All Might can't form black tentacles out of his hands and didn't have electricity surround his body when he was in his Muscle form. Your powers are similar, but calling the same is a bit of a stretch."

"There's a r-reason for that."

"And what is it?"

He paused once again, giving her a serious glare that peered right into her soul. Something big was coming, and Kendou could feel it. What that something was exactly, she had no clue. Suddenly and without warning, Midoriya placed his hands on both of her shoulders and pulled her in close. For a split second, she felt a spark of electricity shoot up her spine at his touch. But let that pass because now wasn't a good time to appreciate him being so forward with physical contact.

"Itsuka...before I say anything else, I need you to promise me that you're gonna keep this a secret. I want to tell you, I really do, but I need your word that you won't breathe a word of this to anyone."

All she could do was simply nod as she lost herself in the newfound intensity of those emerald orbs.

"When I said that the t-two of us have the same quirk, I meant it literally. It's the exact same quirk."

"Okay…."

There was another pregnant pause as Midoriya let out one final breath. An action signifying that he was fully committed to what he was about to say. "You see, the name of my quirk is 'One for All'..."

* * *

**Author's Notes: A lot of information in this chapter. To be honest, this might be one of my favorites of the story so far.**

**1\. Let me just go ahead and apologize to all you Eri fans out there, but she won't be playing a big part in this story. Because of how things have played out so far, Midoriya doesn't have the same connection to her as he does in cannon. So he doesn't feel personally responsible for letting her get away the same way he did in the manga. I decided to just let Mirio bear that burden for now. She'll make a couple of appearance every now and then though.**

**2\. I'm just going to come right out and say it. Yuuto's ENTIRE purpose for being in this story was so that Midoriya and Kendou had a reason to be present for this raid. I planned this "plot twist" out when I first started writing the story, so it's not entirely just some convenient ass-pull. Like I mentioned in this chapter, I alluded to it during the internships when Yuuto and Uwabami went off for their private conversation. Personally, I think it makes sense that Rikiya is his brother, seeing as I modeled Yuuto after Ban from SDS. And their abilities are similar enough to where I could tie it in without it seeming too ridiculous. This is a pretty important plot point for the upcoming fight, so stay tuned for that.**

**-At first I didn't plan on Yuuto having any part in the story after this arc, but him and Sen have grown on me. So they're definitely here to stay. And I have something pretty funny planned for them later on.**

**3\. You guys kept asking for it, so now you're going to get it. Next chapter is the long awaited: "Izuku Midoriya, The Origin: Part 2". This is the part where he finally meets All Might and gets chosen as the next successor of OfA. And I hope you guys enjoy what I have in store for that. Don't expect that chapter to come out until either this weekend or next week. I'm still doing some edits on that part.**

**-My only question though is do you guys want a Jiro/Rayet cameo? If you don't then that's fine. But I have a pretty good idea at how I can tie those two into the origin story. Let me know in the reviews.**

**4\. My last question is how dark do you guys want this story to get? I can either keep it semi-dark or jump completely out the window with it. I have some ideas for the conclusion of this arc, but some of them are pretty...intense. I'll let you guys decide on that.**

**Like always, thanks for reading and don't be afraid to leave a review. The voting for the Bakugou decision is still open, just to let you guys know.**


	38. Izuku Midoriya, The Origin: Part 2

It had been almost two months since that fateful day on the bridge. And Midoriya's life had changed significantly during that time.

His home life was the first difference that he noticed. Inko was given a few weeks off to help her son recover after being discharged from the hospital. And for obvious reasons, the woman had become even more of a nervous wreck than what she had been before. Midoriya was practically on house arrest due to her insistence that he rest as much as possible to aid in his recovery.

The two rarely ever mentioned what happened on the day that he decided to jump off the bridge, but that was a can of worms that Midoriya decided would never be opened again. However, things were still tense after Inko learned that he was cutting himself to relieve the stress of being bullied for so long. Even now, she made sure to check him for any new cuts that may have appeared on his body.

School was also different for him, mainly because of his mother's immediate decision to transfer him out of Aldera Middle School. Although it was a bit of a knee jerk reaction on her part, Midoriya didn't fight it. Out of everything, this was a welcomed change of pace to say the least.

The institution that he was now attending was Mandalore Middle School. Inko had done extensive research on schools in the area and found this to be the best place for her son to attend. Primarily due to its reputation for not tolerating bullying on any level. Even this year alone they had expelled more than five students for their attempts at harassing others.

During an impromptu interview with the principal before he began attending classes, the man gave his word to the two of them that the boy would be much better off than what he was before. Despite this, there was one hurdle that Midoriya faced in his new school. He still didn't have any friends.

In the month that had gone by since first starting classes. The green haired boy made no attempt to get to know any of his new classmates. At some point he decided that it would be in his best interest to just keep to himself. This was a fresh start for him and the last thing he needed right now was to be labeled as the "quirkless loser" once again. There were some pretty interesting students in his new school, and a lot of them seemed like nice people. But in his heart, Midoriya knew that would all change as soon as everyone found out that he didn't have a quirk.

* * *

"Thank you for carrying my bag, Midoriya-kun." Yamanaka told the green haired boy who was nice enough to hold her things while she navigated herself out of the school. There weren't a lot of "wheelchair accessible" places in Mandalore Middle School, so getting to them was a bit of a hassle.

"I-it's no problem." He responded in a monotone voice that she just assumed was his natural way of speaking.

"But I still appreciate it." The girl gave him a warm smile before reaching for her backpack and taking it from his hands. Midoriya may have been the newest student in her class, but he quickly became one of Yamanaka's favorite people. Even if he hardly ever said anything.

The wheelchair bound girl did find it a bit peculiar that he never seemed to be in a good mood. She had never even see him so much as smile before. He was pretty smart from what she could tell. And the fact that he went out of his way to help her out when most people would just walk past her was definitely a good sign.

"Hey, would you want to hang out sometime?" She asked him pretty much on a whim. So far he had been pretty isolated from everyone else. And she had firsthand experience on how that wasn't good for anyone. Especially for the new kid who seemed to be having a hard time adjusting to changes that going to a new school seemed to bring.

The two shared a gaze for a brief moment and Yamanaka could swear that she saw his mouth force itself shut before replying.

"I apologize, b-but I'll have to decline." He simply said with a low bow. No change in his usually neutral tone.

"Oh, alright." The blonde haired girl nodded her head before turning her chair in the other direction to begin her short journey back home. Judging by the way he stated that answer, that was probably meant to be the end of their conversation. "Well have a good day, Midoriya-kun." She gave a quick wave.

Midoriya lingered in that spot for a moment and thought about what he had just done. Even though Yamanaka was a nice girl who practically radiated positive energy, he just couldn't bring himself to accept her offer. For starters, he didn't want to worry his mother by staying out later than what he was supposed to. On top of that, he didn't want to run the risk of the girl finding out that he didn't have a quirk. He had been doing well up until this point to keep that little nugget of information a secret, and he wasn't about slip up now. Especially since he was still having trouble adjusting to the change of scenery.

Just before he was about to make the journey back home, Midoriya realized that he had left his pencil case in the classroom. He was in such a hurry to leave that he forgot the All Might themed piece of memorabilia sitting on his desk. Without a second thought, he quickly patted the ground back up to the classroom hoping that no one managed to swipe it in his absence.

* * *

As he navigated himself through the still unfamiliar hallways en route to his classroom, Midoriya was so deep in thought that when he turned the corner onto the next hall he couldn't stop himself from colliding with another student. The green haired boy ended up falling on the ground onto his still semi-injured shoulder and let out a slight groan at the momentary spike in pain that came with the sudden impact.

"Oh man, sorry about that." A female voice said in an apologetic tone.

"I-I apologize." Midoriya absentmindedly replied before looking up. Only to see a girl with short purple hair and peculiar looking earlobes gazing down at him.

"Hey...you're that new kid. Midoriya, right?" She asked after recognizing the mop of green hair that she had heard about in class that morning.

Instead of a verbal response, all Midoriya did was give her a nod. Even now, he still had a hard time actually speaking to someone of the opposite gender.

"Here." The girl extended a hand out to him to help him up. Midoriya hesitated a bit before accepting the kind gesture. While she tried to pull him back onto his feet, she couldn't help but notice that he was way lighter than what she expected.

_'Then again, I barely felt anything when he bumped into me.'_

"Sorry about that." The girl said once again.

"It's f-f-fine."

"I'm Jiro, by the way. I'm in class 3-3, we're right down the hall from you guys."

"Oh…"

"Y'know, Tachibana-sensei told our class that you were the only one in our grade to get a perfect score on that math exam. So what, do you have some type of intelligence quirk or something?" She joked.

Jiro then noticed the boy's eyes shift to the floor as his expression darkened, and for some reason his heart rate spiked. Did she say something wrong? Her mom told her that she was sometimes too casual with people that she didn't know. Just as she was about to apologize for her remark, the green haired new kid shook himself off and gave her a polite bow.

"I a-apologize for bothering you. Have a-a nice day, Jiro-san." He said before disappearing around the corner.

_'Weird kid….'_ The _'earphone jack'_ user shrugged.

* * *

Time…

It was a luxury that Toshinori Yagi simply did not have anymore. Every day the wound on his left side grew more painful and it was apparent to the man that the world viewed as the 'Symbol of Peace' that his days as a hero were coming to an end. It had been about four years since putting an end to the monster that has plagued Japan for the last few centuries. And now he could only manage maintain his hero form for a measly four hours. If that….

Yagi had only recently arrived in the city of Musutafu this morning. And he had spent most of the day helping out random citizens here and there as he killed time before his scheduled meeting. Getting a call from Nighteye was one of the last things that he expected, especially after their falling out following his battle with All for One. But when the lanky, green haired man told him about a U.A. student who could very well be the contender that he had been looking for, he couldn't help his curiosity.

Yagi had only really been entertaining the thought of choosing a successor for a couple of months. But the fact that his days as a hero were numbered was still in the back of his mind.

As he leaped from building to building through the city, he searched for somewhere that he could power down in secrecy. Fortunately, he found an alleyway next to a nearby bridge that was perfect cover for him to get himself in order. He had already reached his limit and was liable to bottom out at any given second.

In a matter of seconds his feet hit the ground and in a puff of smoke, All Might vanished. Leaving Toshinori Yagi in his place.

_'I barely made it in time. Another few seconds and I that would've been it for me.'_ He thought to himself after wiping the blood from his chin. He quickly pulled out his phone to check the time. He still had a good three hours before his meeting. Deciding to take a break for a while and get some much needed food, Yagi began making his way out of the alley in hopes of finding a restaurant nearby. However, right before he could make it onto the street, the sound of a pipe bursting behind him momentarily froze him.

"You're pretty thin, but I guess you'll have to do." I rough and creepy voice said.

Before he knew it, Yagi felt his entire body became engulfed by something wet and slimy. His immediate reaction was to activate 'One for All', but there were two problems with that. The first, was that he had already reached his limit for the day to safely be able to use it. The second, was that whatever this stuff was it was digging into his wound. The aggravation of his injury was probably disrupting his ability to activate his quirk.

"Quit squirming around will ya'!" The voice commanded as Yagi began struggling. There were very few times in his life were the blonde haired man panicked in the face of danger, and this was one of them. The more he tried to push the sludge off, the more the stuff seemed to grab hold him. Just as quickly as it came, the foul smelling semi-liquid was forcing its way into his windpipe.

_'This isn't good!'_

"If you'd just stay still then you'd have a much easier time!"

As the seconds rapidly passed by, Yagi felt himself fade into unconsciousness. He still couldn't activate his quirk and he was running out of air. The man's life began replaying in his head and he started to wonder if this was truly the end of the man known as the 'Symbol of Peace'. Killed in a dark alley by someone or something that he couldn't even identify. Regret filled his mind as he thought of his master and how he couldn't save her.

"Get away from him!" A voice shouted from the opening on the other end of the alley.

Just before the slime could cover his eyes, Yagi saw a bright yellow backpack appear in his peripheral vision. The object making contact with what looked like one of the villain's eyes and spilling its contents all over the place.

"Argh!" The villain groaned in agony. The sharp increase in pain causing him to lose hold over his victim and dropping him to the ground.

Yagi took this moment to look at the direction where the backpack came from and to his dismay, a kid was standing there. He had bushy green hair, freckles from what he could tell and was sporting a school uniform.

"You're gonna pay for that you brat!" The villain shouted before launching himself towards the boy. Whether out of shock or fear, he didn't make an attempt to move out of the way before the sludge took hold of him. "Your body is much better than his, today really is my lucky day!"

It only took a second for Yagi to recompose himself after coughing up a disgusting amount of sludge out of his lungs. The hero wasted no time springing into action. Throwing caution to the wind, and with is wound now unobstructed, the pro hero transformed into his muscle form.

All Might shot down the alley with blinding speed and before the villain even knew what hit him, his body was scattered around the entire area. Whether he killed the thing or not wasn't his main concern right now. There was a child that needed his attention.

When he turned around to check on the boy's condition, All Might was met with wide green eyes and an absolutely gob-smacked facial expression. He had seen that look from fans hundreds of times over. But for some reason, even though the boy gazed up at him with obvious admiration, his eyes lacked that certain glint that he was used to seeing.

"Young man, are you okay?" All Might asked in a worried tone.

"Y-y-you, y-you're…you're…" The boy stuttered out.

Quickly remembering who he was, All Might puffed his chest out a bit, flashed the boy a smile and struck a heroic pose. "Yes citizen! It is I, All Migh-" Yagi didn't get a chance to finish his introduction before the pain from his injury spiked and blood shot out of his mouth. His hold on 'One for All' released and his muscle formed vanished in a puff of smoke.

_'Damn!'_ He cursed to himself.

"What the hell!" The young man yelled with obvious shock. "Who are you? Where'd All Might go? A-are you an imposter?!" He frantically started asking as he tried to piece together what exactly just happened in front of him.

"Calm down you man." Yagi spoke to him, hoping to calm him down. The boy was just attacked by a villain so he was probably hysterical. On top of that, he had witnessed him transform and it wasn't like he could exactly hide that. "To answer your question, I am indeed All Might."

"W-what? How?!"

"You know how those guys who puff their chests out at the pool? Well it's sort of the same concept…" The blonde man began explaining before noticing a small trail of blood running down the boy's right wrist. Was he injured during that attack?

"Your hand, you're hurt!"

"I-I'm fine!" He hastily replied.

"What? Your hand is-"

"It's okay! I j-just, my arm is still h-healing…it's no b-big deal." The boy shot back in a much more uneasy tone. Covering the affected limb with his other hand. Still healing? What was he talking about? Did he already have an injury there? And what was he doing in this alley way in the first place. Obviously the kid was still worked up from the whole affair so he needed to calm him down. And wasn't like he could leap away and leave the kid here to do whatever.

"I see." Yagi nodded. "Young…."

"M-Mido…M-Midoriya."

"Young Midoriya, what were you even doing here?" The blonde asked.

"I t-take this way as a s-shortcut on the way home."

"Ah, I understand." The pro hero simply replied. "But I must tell you, running into that type of situation was extremely dangerous. Doing something like that was very irresponsible."

"I know but…ri-right when I was walking by...I heard the sound of a struggle and then I s-saw…you…getting attacked b-by that slime guy and…." The boy dropped his head before continuing. "I don't know…my body kinda just moved on its own."

Yagi gave the boy a sharp look after hearing that. He knew exactly what the kid was talking about. That subconscious impulse to jump into action at a moment's notice. Although he felt a little respect for the kid for reacting so quickly, prolonging this conversation probably wasn't for the best.

"Well I appreciate you doing so, young Midoriya." He smiled. "Your quick action distracted that villain long enough for me to defeat him. Thank you."

Yagi looked around for a second and noticed the school supplies that were littered all over the area. The kid just saved his ass, the least he could do was help him gather up his things. The blonde haired man then noticed a notebook on the ground a couple of meters away from and bent down to pick it up.

However, his hand stopped once he noticed writing on the front of it. In big bold letters it read: **"Hero Analysis for the Future No. 13."** The book was slightly worn and looked burned on a few edges. But the sight of this did little to quell the man's curiosity.

"Young Midoriya, what's this?"

The boy who had only just get over his initial shock of the whole situation looked at the object before a slight redness appeared on his cheeks. In all honesty, Midoriya had no idea why he even still carried that thing around. He hadn't even cracked it opened it open since that day at the bridge. But simply out of habit he always packed it into his stuff when he left for school.

While Midoriya was fumbling around and thinking of an explanation that wouldn't make him sound like a complete fool, Yagi took the liberty of briefly inspecting the contents himself. He had no clue what force compelled him to take a look at it. But when he opened it up to a page containing information about Endeavor, he was surprised to say the least.

The sheer amount of detailed information that he scanned his eyes across left him at a loss for words. There were handwritten statistics and footnotes about the number two hero that even he had no clue about.

_'And there are twelves more of these? This kid takes better notes than Dave.'_

"Young Midoriya, do you wish to become a hero?" Yagi asked the boy was looking at him with a concerned expression.

Midoriya felt a lump appear in his throat as he tried to speak. A shadow cast over his plain features and his chest tightened. What we he supposed to say to that? Especially to All Might of all people. A small part of him wanted to tell him that he did desire to become a hero one day. But the other part of him knew better than that.

"I used to…." He quietly let out as he looked away from him.

"Use to?" Yagi arched an eyebrow at him. "Why not? If this notebook is any indication, then I'd say that you'd do pretty well."

"I c-can't be a hero."

"And why do you think that is?"

"B-because…because I don't have a quirk…."

Yagi was briefly taken aback by this and felt the muscles in his body tighten at the boy's words. So, this young man was quirkless. Although it was increasingly rare nowadays, people like him still existed. His mind flashed back to his time before meeting his predecessor. And the less than ideal treatment he had received before become the latest torchbearer of 'One for All'.

Something about this didn't feel right. This boy had just jumped head first into danger without a second thought. Forgetting the fact that he was essentially powerless to do anything in hopes of saving someone that he had never met. Very few people who called themselves "heroes" nowadays had that in them. And even fewer had enough courage to act on it.

The blonde haired man was brought out of his thoughts when Midoriya suddenly began shuffling around and retrieving the rest of his things. The boy's face was contorted in some weird way and he looked like he was about to break down for some reason. Just before he could say something, the green haired boy swiped the notebook out of his hand and gave him a low bow.

"T-Thank you f-f-for saving me All Might, sir. I-I hope you have a good rest of your day!" He said before turning on his heels and making his way to the street.

As Yagi watched the boy rush away from him, something in his mind clicked. This young boy that he had met only moments ago did something that only true heroes would've done. He had something in his soul that wasn't satisfied being a bystander when something could be done about it. Obviously he was a smart kid, based on the brief look into his notebook. And there was an untapped potential that was just right for the picking.

"Young Midoriya!" Yagi called out. Fortunately, the boy turned around to look him in the eye. Those green orbs devoid of any type of spark. He recognized that look. It was one that was all too familiar to him. It was the look of someone who had been knocked down too many times to count.

There was absolutely no way that Toshinori Yagi was going to let this opportunity pass him by. The boy needed direction, the kind that only he himself could provide. And something in his soul was telling him that under no circumstance, should he let this boy slip away from him.

"Do you live around here?"

"Y-Yes…." Midoriya meekly responded.

"Then please, allow me walk you home." Yagi offered.

"What?!"

"You were just attacked and are probably still shaken up. What kind of hero would be if I didn't make sure that you got home safely?"

"Y-you don't have to that, sir. I m-mean, I'm sure you're really busy and all."

"Actually, my schedule is pretty open for the next few hours."

Midoriya rubbed his hands together for a minute as he thought about it. The logical side of his brain was telling him to deny the request and get back home as quickly as possible. But the other side was telling him that this was All Might…_the_ All Might. And he was offering to walk him home. He would be an idiot not to say yes, this was a once in a lifetime opportunity. Maybe he could even get him to sign his notebook.

"Um...s-sure."

"Excellent." The blonde haired man gave him a smile.

What followed after that proved to be the most fruitful conversation of young Midoriya's life. One that would start him on the journey to becoming a hero.

* * *

"Well Izuku, that was…a lot." Kendou said as the boy just finished wrapping up his story.

"Y-yeah…it is, isn't it?" Midoriya shakily replied. The boy feeling his throat hurt after talking for so long.

"Okay, so let me make sure I have everything straight..." Kendou started while rubbing the sides of her head, looking him right in his eyes. "You were born quirkless, like truly, honest to goodness quirkless."

"Yes." He simply nodded

"And by a sheer stroke of luck, one day after school while you were taking a shortcut to get home faster so your mom wouldn't worry about you...you just so happened to get caught up in a villain attack. And by caught up, I mean you recklessly jumped into the situation without even thinking because you saw someone in trouble."

"Yes."

"And that someone just so happened to be All Might of all people."

"Yes."

"And after you recklessly threw your bag at this _"Sludge Villain"_, you bought All Might enough time to take him down before he could kill you."

"Yes."

"From there...the two of you started talking, he got a look at one of your notebooks, offered to walk you home, you accepted, and the two of you stopped at a fucking _smoothie shop_ along the way."

"That is correct."

"While you were there, the two of you started talking about heroics and quirks, All Might was impressed by how smart and passionate you were about heroes and then offered you 'One for All' right there on the spot."

"Yes."

"To which you initially turned down, saying that you weren't _"Fit to be a hero."_, started crying, and then told him about your attempt and your problems."

"That's right."

"But for some reason, he found that even more inspiring and decided that he wouldn't take "no" for an answer."

The green haired boy nodded this time.

"And then proceed to _completely_ skip out on his scheduled meetup with Nighteye who was going to introduce him to Togata, and went straight to your house to talk to your mom."

"Honestly, I think this is a pretty significant reason why Nighteye doesn't like me…." Midoriya retorted.

"And after _somehow_ convincing Inko-san to go along with this. You immediately began training to receive 'One for All' after your shoulder was fully healed."

"Yes."

"And 'One for All' is actually a quirk that can be passed down from one person to another. Which makes you it's ninth holder."

"You're doing great so far."

"In addition to this, on top of the guarantee that you're going to _more_ powerful than All Might himself. At some point you're going to manifest another five quirks… aside from _'black whip'_, which you've already managed to unlock."

"Yup."

"So that means that you actually have seven quirks now…."

_"In my opinion, it's technically eight."_ The voice of Yuuto interjected from video chat on Midoriya's phone. Halfway through the forty-five minute explanation, he ended up calling the silver haired man to corroborate his story. Originally he intended to call Yagi himself, but the stress of the situation got to him and he chickened out.

_"When you think about it, 'stockpile' and 'transference' are two separate quirks that became one."_

"And then there's you!" Kendou pointed to her mentor on the screen. "You're the great-grandson of one of the previous wielders of 'One for All'."

_"I sure am."_

"And to make this entire situation even more insane. Tomura Shigaraki, the leader of the _'League of Villains'_, is the grandson of the seventh wielder of 'One for All'. The woman who passed the quirk down to All Might. On top of that, he's been raised by All for One. The person who accidentally created 'One for All', who has the ability to give and take away quirks."

"Yup." Both Midoriya and Yuuto echoed.

"Does that about cover it?"

_"You glanced over the part where Midoriya spent nearly an entire year cleaning up a beach by himself. But other than, you pretty much covered everything."_ The silver haired man said in a joking tone.

Kendou took a moment to walk around the room for a bit to clear her mind and get herself in order. Of all the things that she was expecting to hear during this conversation. This definitely was not it. In all honesty she was having a hard time wrapping her head around this. And if it wasn't for the fact that Midoriya and Yuuto were the ones telling her this, she would not have believed it at all.

How could she? Transferrable quirks, something like that was impossible. Then again, they do live in a world where people can grow to the size of giant buildings in the blink of an eye.

The orange haired teen plopped down on her bed to rest her feet before looking up at her boyfriend who was giving her a concerned look. She had no idea if that was because he was worried for her or worried about how she was going to react. They stayed silent for a few seconds longer before Midoriya joined her on the bed and delicately placed his hand on her shoulder.

"Y-you're taking this a lot better than I thought you would." He said with a wobbly grin.

"I think my brain is still trying to process all of this." She replied, already feeling a headache coming on from the overload of information.

"If it makes you feel any better, my mom passed out the first time hearing it. So you're doing a lot better than her."

_"You two obviously have a lot to talk about, so I'm going to go ahead and go. I'll call you if anything comes up about the operation."_ Yuuto told the two of them.

"Yeah, have a good day sir." Kendou and Midoriya said their goodbyes.

The two sat in very awkward silence for about two minutes. Midoriya wanted to say something that would hopefully calm her down a bit. But he was having trouble finding the right words to do it. Luckily, Kendou ended up being the one to break the tension between the two of them.

"Izuku, don't take this the wrong way. But your life sounds like some ridiculously overcomplicated fanfiction." She gave him a weak smile.

"Well...I can't really argue with you there." He chuckled.

With the weight of this secret finally off his shoulders. Midoriya then decided that now was probably a good time to bring his girlfriend's mood up a bit. After hearing something like that, it was no surprise that she was going to need something to relax.

With as much courage as he could muster, the quirk inheritor stood up from his spot on the bed and grabbed her by the hand. Pulling her towards the door before she could even think about protesting.

"What are you doing?" She asked him in a confused tone.

"We're going to go get coffee. I remember you saying that it helps you de-stress."

"You just told me an earth shattering secret and you're worried about _me_ being stressed?"

"Yeah." Was his simply reply. Giving the girl a smile that she absolutely could not refuse. Causing her to blush a bit at how forward he was being. There was a lot more that Kendou wanted to say that, but she decided to table that for a later discussion.

There were slightly more important things to worry about right now, like what kind of coffee she was going to get.

* * *

**Author's Notes: So yeah...you guys remember how I said that I wasn't going to have this chapter up until this weekend? Well I lied. I ended up getting the day off of work today and was able to finish the Jiro/Rayet part of the story. I didn't see the point in waiting to post this, so I just went and uploaded it.**

**1\. So there you have it, that's how Midoriya met All Might. I wanted to do something different than what I've seen in other fics. And this is what I came up with. Before you guys come at me, I know that in cannon the Sludge Villain only ran into Midoriya because he was running away from All Might. But this is fanfiction...so sue me.**

**-And for the record, yes All Might did eventually remember to call the police to come get the Sludge Villain.**

**2\. I really didn't feel like writing out what happened after that. So I just had Kendou do a "Luis" style recap of the events that followed their encounter. I just thought that it would be kind of funny.**

**3\. What characters would you like to see next in the "Midoriya Redemption Saga" other than Kirishima and Ashido? I'm going to save those two for later. I have a couple of students in mind, but I wanna see what you guys want.**

**Like always, thank you for reading and don't be afraid to leave a review.**


	39. Yakuza Arc: Part 6

Midoriya and Kendou returned to their dorm in slightly better condition than when they left. Evidently, the midly excessive amount of caffeine was more than enough to hold off Kendou's oncoming migraine long enough for her to ask a few more questions. Overall it was a pretty simple outing. Sort of lackluster, but neither were going to complain about it anytime soon. And even though the girl was still trying to wrap her head around this whole 'One for All' business, she was glad that her boyfriend trusted her enough to share what most would consider a state secret with her.

Unfortunately for the young couple, they returned just in time to get caught up in the middle of what looked to be a very passionate argument between a few of their classmates.

"...don't know about all that, dude." Kaminari looked to Tetsutetsu, confusion written all over his face.

"You guys just don't have any taste!" The silver haired teen half-shouted while waving his arms around like a newborn baby octopus.

"Says the guy who eats metal shavings as a midday snack." Tokage shot back with a smirk.

At the moment, the three of them along with Shiozaki, Rin, Awase, Kaibara, Komori and Yanagi were all crowded around one of the dining tables with study materials littered all over the place. But it was obvious that anything school related wasn't the topic of discussion.

"What are you guys talking about?" Kendou cautiously asked her classmates.

Tetsutetsu was quick to get out of his seat and wrapped his arm around Midoriya's shoulders, all while giving the green haired boy a slightly unnerving smile. "Hey, let's ask Midoriya. He'll agree with me!"

"What's g-going on?"

"Kaibara and Tetsutetsu are having a _friendly debate_ over who the most attractive pro hero is." Rin clarified as he rubbed his temples in obvious annoyance over this entire situation.

"Okay…."

"To make a long story short, Kaibara said that Mt. Lady is the hottest. And Metalhead says that it's Miruko." Tokage spoke up.

Midoriya couldn't help the slight tinge of pink that appeared on his cheeks after hearing that. This was a dangerous topic to be a part of for multiple reasons.

"I really don't feel like being a part of this conversation." Kendou gave the group an exasperated glare.

"Midoriya, you agree with me right? Don't you think that Miruko is the epitome of beauty?" Tetsutetsu asked. Hoping that the quirk inheritor would side with him.

"Do you really think that it's a good idea to ask him that in front of his girlfriend?" Komori chimed in.

"This is such a vulgar conversation." Shiozaki drug her hand across her face. If it wasn't for the fact that they were in the middle of studying, she would've already left.

"I'm pretty sure that Itsuka isn't the jealous type." The _'steel'_ quirk user waved off. "C'mon man, you're a fellow muscle-bro. You can't tell me that you don't think Miruko isn't just...perfect."

For some unknown reason, Midoriya had lost the ability to form actual words and began to nervously rub his hands together. His face immediately flushed and he was looking around for anything that would help him get out of this situation.

"Izuku?" Kendou lifted an eyebrow at her boyfriend. She'll admit that a part of her was more than a bit curious about what kind of girls Midoriya was into. He never exactly made that clear as long as the two of them had known each other.

"W-well I-I um...I m-mean uh...Miruko is d-definitely an awesome hero. A-and she's definitely strong."

"Of course she is! And she has a totally awesome body to boot. I bet you she can deadlift at least like 240 kilos with those legs!"

"W-well sh-she does have a rather...nice p-physique…." He whispered out just loud enough for others to hear. Immediately regretting letting those words come out of his mouth.

There was a brief beat of silence between the 1-B students before Tokage jumped out of her seat and pointed an accusatory finger towards her other green haired classmate. A metaphoric lightbulb going off over her head.

"Holy shit!"

"Setsuna!" Shizoaki immediate chastised her sinful words.

"It all makes sense now!"

"What are talking about?" Kendou arched and annoyed eyebrow at her. She had a feeling that she wasn't going to like where this was going.

"I finally get why he's so into you. Wonderboy...you have a muscle fetish!"

Yet another painfully awkward silence followed the _'lizard tail splitter'_ quirk user's revelation. While the others were thinking about this sudden moment of clarity, Tokage's brain was already starting to form new and inventive ways to use this information to her advantage. She had been in a rut lately when it came to teasing her two favorite targets. And this is exactly what she needed to get the ball rolling again.

"Y'know...that does make a lot of sense." Komori rubbed a hand to her chin. "Midoriya-kun does have a strength quirk, so it would only be logical for him to be into girls like Itsuka."

"A-and the what the hell is that supposed to mean?!" A now furiously blushing Kendou gave her a bewildered look.

"C'mon Red, don't act dumb. I'm pretty sure the only two people in our class with better abs than you _are_ Wonderboy and Tetsutetsu. I mean look at you, you're kinda swole."

While all of this was happening, Midoriya's brain had essentially shut down. The heat coming off of his face could rival anything that Todoroki's flames could produce. And he was now wishing for a hole to appear under him so that he could disappear.

"We're done with this conversation." Kendou said before grabbing her boyfriend from Tetsutetsu's grip and making a move towards the elevator.

"Don't be lik-"

The sight of Kendou's enlarged right hand ready to chop the green haired girl into next week was all that was needed to stop whatever snarky remark that was about to come out of her mouth.

"Never mind…." Tokage defensively held her hands up in front of her face.

With that, Kendou and Midoriya took their leave and made the journey back up to their rooms. The orange haired girl pretty much having to drag him the entire way due his body completely locking up and his mind probably somewhere else.

* * *

_~The Next Day~_

Hanta Sero was not having a good day. Remedial training for the make up exam to get his provisional license had kicked his ass and he barely passed his world history quiz. On top of that, most everyone seemed to be down in the dumps lately. Out of his entire friend group though, Kirishima seemed to be the most downtrodden for some reason.

More than likely, this was due to the absence of one of class 1-A's resident hotheads, Katsuki Bakugou. The _'explosion'_ quirk user had been gone for the last few days. And the only person who seemed to know why was Kirishima himself. According to him, Bakugou had not been in class due to "family reasons", but he had a feeling that there was something more to that.

"Excuse me, Sero-san." A voice caught his ear just as he was about to turn onto the next hall.

Sero turned around to be met with none other than his former classmate, Izuku Midoriya. "Uh…what's up Midoriya?"

"I apologize for bothering you. I know you're probably busy, b-but I could use your advice."

Okay, that was definitely something that the _'tape'_ quirk user was not expecting to hear. Of all the people in the world that could possibly want or need advice from him, Midoriya definitely shouldn't have been on that list. In fact, this scenario should be the other way around.

"You want advice…from me?"

"Y-yes. I wanted to pick your brain on your technique when it comes to using your tape to swing from building to building." He responded.

"What for?"

"I think it could be a valuable skill to learn."

Sero pondered over this for a good ten seconds. He was a bit skeptical about the resident greenette's sudden interest in something like this. But based on what he heard from Kaminari, Midoriya had apparently activate a second quirk that worked sort of like his. Which somehow made him even scarier than he was before. However, the black haired student had more pressing issues to attend to.

"Sorry man, I'd like to. But I gotta head back to the dorms and study."

"Oh yeah, that reminds me." Midoriya stated before reaching into his backpack. Fumbling around for a minute before pulling out what looked like a fresh notebook.

"Here." The boy offered.

"What's this?" Sero gave him a curious look.

"I remember that you were having trouble with world history last semester. S-so I made a study guide for you that covers the next four chapters that we're going to go over in class. I knew you wouldn't want to help me without some type of…c-compensation."

The _'tape'_ quirk user took the object from his former classmate and briefly scanned over a few of its pages. Needless to say, Sero was amazed at the amount of detail that was put into it. "Holy shit! This is better than the stuff Yaoyorozu gave me last semester."

"S-so are you going to help me then?" Midoriya followed up.

Sero looked at him for a brief moment as he thought it over. On one hand, he didn't really like the guy seeing as he wasn't the nicest person to him and his classmates during the year. He never liked people who purposely ignored and blew off others, and Midoriya was no exception.

However, the boy did offer him the holy grail of notes in exchange for a few simple words on how he liked swinging around from buildings….

"Yeah…" The boy nodded. "I got a few minutes. What do you wanna know?"

* * *

Midoriya really had no idea what to expect when he stepped into Uwabami's agency building that afternoon. Even with Kendou's warnings, he still wasn't entirely prepared for how his day was going to go.

For the green haired boy, spending two hours in "hair and makeup" was almost as bad as an entire day of training with Sorahiko and Yagi to better improve his control over 'One for All.'. And if that wasn't bad enough, the cheeky remarks from a few of Uwabami's assistants, along with the three hours of nonstop posing, had him pretty much exhausted. At some point during this entire fiasco he simply let his mind go blank as he tried to push through everything as best as he could. Even then, Midoriya was thankful that he only got half of the treatment that Kendou received.

According to Kendou, she had spent nearly an hour getting her hair done alone. He was lucky that he only had to get a quick trim from one of the barbers to "tighten up" his new hairstyle. Thankfully, everything was finally over and done with. There was no more need for him to contort his face into a forced smile and awkwardly pose his body next to some random prop. If it wasn't for a good cause, Midoriya probably would've tried to find a way to leave halfway through the entire process.

"Well you two, that will be enough for today." Uwabami gave a smile to her two soon-to-be "superstars".

"Finally." Kendou let out a defeated sigh. She had almost forgotten how physically taxing this type of thing was.

"I can't thank you guys enough for coming out here. These stills are going to do wonders for our advertising division."

"Well, w-we're just glad to help." Mdioriya gave an awkward smile.

"Yeah, and it's for a good cause. I'm actually really interested in this "suicide awareness" thing you have going on." Kendou added.

"I'm glad to see young people like yourselves taking an interest in such things. We're still working out a few of the fine details. But with the money we get from my new line, we'll have more than enough to get the campaign off the ground."

"I have a question, Uwabami-san." Midoriya asked. "Who are the other heroes working on this with you?"

"Well...there's me, Ingenium, Gunhead, Gang Orca and a few other local heroes here in Shimane. Best Jeanist was supposed to be a part of it, but after the whole Kamino Ward incident he'll be out of commission for a while."

"Wow."

"Wow indeed." The snake themed heroine smiled.

"So how long until these photos come out?" Kendou asked this time. The last time Uwabami gave her a timeline she was pretty much blindsided by the early airing of that hairspray commercial.

"About three weeks, give or take."

"I guess that's more than enough time to get ready." She chuckled.

"Yes." The woman nodded. "Well anyways, there's nothing else left for you two to do. You can keep all of the clothes that you wore here today. Think of it as a little "thank you" gift for taking the time out to be a part of this."

"Thank you, ma'am." The two teens nodded and bowed as the woman made her exit to go get ready for her own shoot.

The young couple shared a look between one another and let their shoulders drop with relief. Both of them glad that they had the other to help them get through the afternoon.

"Well that was...interesting." Mdioriya said with a slight chuckle.

"I told you, didn't I?" Kendou smiled back at him.

"Yeah."

"You should probably get ready for the whole school to pester you about your "modelling debut". The last time I did something like this, all of the girls hounded me for like three days straight."

"Maybe Kan-sensei will let me stay at home for a few days until it blows over."

"Maybe, but I'm glad that one of the photographers let me keep _this_ as a memento~." The orange haired teen showed him her phone screen to reveal a picture of Midoriya posing next to an artificial tree. The boy was dressed a pair of black jeans, a green collared shirt and a black jacket. All while giving off a smile that practically screamed: "I'm not really comfortable with this."

"Let's just head back to the dorms, please." He said in an exasperated tone. More than ready to just throw himself onto his bed and forget this entire thing even happened.

"No problem. Y'know, the whole "bad boy" look works for you. Maybe I should send this to Yagi-san?" The girl gave him a slightly devious smirk.

"I-Itsuka!"

* * *

Later that night, Midoriya, Kendou, Tokage and Tetsutetsu were all woken up by phone calls from their respective pros. Apparently, Nighteye had managed to confirm the location of the Shie Hissaikai's hideout and everyone was ordered to get ready immediately. The operation was going to take place early in the morning and they needed all hands on deck as soon as possible.

The group of students all met up in the common area to make sure that everyone was present.

"You guys got the message, right?" Midoriya asked.

"Yup."

"Sure did."

"It looks like it's "Go Time"!" Tetsutetsu slapped his hardened fists together while striking a manly pose.

"Stop shouting you idiot, everyone's still asleep." Tokage immediately slapped him in the back of the head.

"Is Uraraka-san awake?" Kendou asked.

"She called me a second ago to make sure that I got the text. She'll meet us the front gate."

The students looked to one another and there was a notable tension in the air between them. This entire operation was going to be madhouse, that they were aware of. But, there was little girl that needed to be saved and they needed to bring their A-Game if they were going to be successful.

"Alright guys, let's make sure we give this our all." Kendou gave them a determined look. Ready to go out and give it everything she had.

* * *

**Author's Notes: A shorter chapter this time around. Think of it as an "intermission" before the big fight. I wanted to get this part out of the way because the next chapter is going to primarily focus on the battles. The whole raid is essentially going to be split into two parts. One Midoriya focus, and one Kendou-focus. That is going to take some time to work out the way that I want it to, so I can't really give a good estimate on when that's going to be finished. But I promise you that it's going to be interesting. Things are going to get a bit sad/dark at the end, but nothing too crazy.**

**1\. I honestly didn't feel like writing out the entire modelling part. But rest assured that it will be coming up again very soon. And certain students (*cough* Tokage *cough*) are going to have more than a little fun with it.**

**2\. The voting for the Bakugou decision has officially been closed. I tallied up all the votes (Yes, I actually went through all the reviews and counted them up), and I'm already outlining how I'm going to handle that. I don't know exactly where I'm going to plug that into the story, but it will be known very soon. And that particular sub-plot will be focused on the 1-A students.**

**3\. So yeah, Sero was next up on the "Midoriya Redemption Story". I chose him for two main reasons. One, he has some utility seeing as Midoriya could actually learn something from him. And two, he's the member of Bakugou-squad that was the easiest to deal with right now. There will be a couple of more students before the inevitable Kirishima confrontation, but you'll just have to wait and see who they are.**

**Like always, thank you for reading and don't be afraid to drop a review. I'm glad that a lot of you are enjoying this overly-complicated dumpsterfire that I call a fanfic**.


	40. Yakuza Arc: Part 7 (Finale)

It didn't take long for everyone to finally show up to the "Nighteye Hero Agency" once the call was put out. After a quick rundown on some new intel concerning the whereabouts of the little girl, the group of heroes and police officers quickly got suited up and were just about ready to head out. Even though everyone was fully aware of how serious this operation was going to be, a few of them couldn't help but get hyped up about the mission. Tetsutetsu was already stretching his muscles out and Togata was practically beaming with determination.

While the pros were putting together a few last minute touches, Midoriya decided that now was a good time to get something out of the way that he should've done a while ago.

"E-excuse me, Uraraka-san. Can I talk to you for a minute?" Midoriya asked the brunette girl.

Uraraka gave him a perplexed look for a few seconds before giving her answer. "Yeah, sure."

While the two of them walked off to the other side of the room, Tokage made no attempt to hide that fact that her eyes drifted over to Uraraka's body. Getting a good look at the girl's backside with a hungry look on her face.

"Geez, take a picture. It'll last longer." Kendou elbowed her best friend with a slightly annoyed scowl.

_"Easier said than done…."_ The green haired girl whispered just loud enough for her to hear.

"What?"

"What?"

"Setsuna...sometimes you're just too much." The orange haired drug her hand across her face.

"What?" The girl shrugged her shoulders defensively, albeit with a bit of a toothy smirk. "I mean c'mon, you see the ass on that girl. It's like...perfectly round."

"Why don't you just ask her out then?" Kendou asked, hoping to finally be able to get some payback and tease the girl herself for once.

"I would, but I'm pretty sure that she has a thing for Tsu."

"Really?" Kendou looked to her in surprise, she certainly wasn't expecting to hear something like that.

"Yeah, I guess I'm just cursed to being eternally single." Tokage said with a fake tear in her eye.

"My heart weeps for you."

"Then again...if you don't mind sharing Wonderboy, I wouldn't be too mad~." She said with playful wink.

"Has anyone ever told you that it's rude to hit on your best friend's boyfriend right to her face?"

"Hey, you procured yourself a prime piece of ass. You should be glad that you got first pluck at such a hot commodity."

"Please leave Izuku's nice ass out of this."

Tokage's grin suddenly grew even wider as she gave Kendou a devious look. "I never said his ass was _"nice"_."

Kendou's face immediately erupted into a shade of red after realizing what she had just said. "I-I uh…"

"So, little miss class rep has some wondering eyes, does she~? Tell me, have you gotten any good looks lately? Me and some of the other girls have been dying to know what Wonderboy looks like once you _"pop the hood"_."

"Y'know, with Monoma-san gone I haven't been able to chop anyone in the back of the neck lately." Kendou threatened her with an intense glare.

* * *

"So...what did you want to talk about?" Uraraka inquired in a rather skeptical tone.

"I just wanted t-to say that…I-I apologize." Midoriya responded with a near perfect ninety-degree bow.

"Huh?" The brunette simply said as she tried to process what was going on in front of her.

"For how I acted towards you at the start of the year and recently. It wasn't right to be disrespectful to you or the others and I hope that you can forgive me."

"It's fine, Midoriya-san." She quickly waved off. "After learning about everything that happened between you and Bakugou-san, I kinda put the pieces together. Frankly, I don't blame you. I probably wouldn't have acted much better if I was in your shoes."

"But still I-"

"To be honest, I probably should've known better than to call you by that name in the first place. I went home later that day and looked up what it meant...and I felt pretty bad about it. But I never apologized because I thought the damage was already done."

"Well, I-I certainly didn't help out either…."

"You're not wrong." The brunette gave a slight laugh. "Tell you what, how about we just leave all of that in the past and just start over, huh?"

"I'd l-like that."

"Awesome!"

Just before either one of them could say anything else, the doors to the conference room swung open revealing Nighteye and Centipeder. "Preparations are complete. We're moving out!"

* * *

Barely an hour later, the group found themselves in front of the compound that was allegedly serving as the headquarters for the Shie Hassaikai. Despite the very palpable tension in the air, a few of them couldn't help but comment on how nice the area was. For most everyone, they half expected some seedy underground nightclub to serve as their base of operations. Not a series of small traditional Japanese buildings in a nice residential area.

At that very moment, the police captain had just received the go ahead to commence the operation and was making his way over to the main gate with a few other officers.

"Lizardy, can you give us a look at what's going on in there?" Ryukyu asked.

"Yeah." Tokage replied before detaching one of her eyes and raising it above the concrete barrier.

While she was doing that, something wasn't sitting quite right for Midoriya. The entire compound was quiet, too quiet. Even though it was still early in the morning, there should've been more activity going on. From what they had been told in their briefing, there should be at least eighty or so suspected yakuza members lurking about on the inside.

"Oh shit!" Tokage suddenly shouted. Catching everyone's attention.

"What's wrong?"

"They know we're her-"

***Boom!***

Before the green haired girl could finish her warning, the front gate suddenly blew open. Revealing an incredibly large man wearing what looked like a bird mask similar to what the suspected leader of the gang had been seen in.

"What's going on out here?!" The man shouted.

The force of the attack was enough to send a few of the nearby police officers flying into the air. Luckily, Midoriya and Aizawa were quick to grab the probably wounded men before they could hit the ground.

"Are you okay?" Midoriya asked the one he managed to save.

"Yeah, thanks hero." The man responded with a relieved sigh.

"What the hell?! They're already onto us?"

"I doesn't matter, everyone het back and let the Ryukyu squad handle him!" The dragon themed heroine ordered.

The large man wasted no time in getting down to business, launching an armored fist directly at the woman. Unfortunately for him, Ryukyu was able to shift into her dragon form in time and hold him down.

"We'll handle this one, go and finish the mission!"

"You heard the lady, we don't have any time to waste!" Fatgum shouted before he and the rest of the crew began their assault into the compound.

"Siphon?" Midoriya looked to his mentor. Not even thirty seconds into the operation and their plan had already gone to ruin.

"Kurou, go with the Nighteye team. They'll need you in there. We can deal with Rikiya." Yuuto gave a stern gaze that told him that there was no room for discussion.

Midoriya gave the silver haired man a questioning look before darting his eyes over to Kendou. The two shared a quick glance before the orange haired gave him a nod. Yuuto was right, Midoriya's speed and strength would be better utilized in close quarters than outside.

"You guys give 'em hell!" Tetsutetsu told the rest of them while rushing through the compound with Amajiki.

"We'll see you in a bit!" Kendou shot back.

And just like that, the rest of the raid team pushed their way into what was sure to be one hell of a fight. Kendou and Tokage were definitely worried about their friends, but they were more than capable of handling themselves in a brawl. But as of right now, they had their own problems to deal with.

"Battle Fist, hang back with Uravity. If you see an opening then take it, but don't let him touch you if you can avoid it. Lizardy, get airborne and keep a lookout for any reinforcements! " Yuuto commanded the three teens.

"Got it!"

With their plan in motion, Yuuto was quick to jump in and give assistance to Rykyu. The silver haired man dashed towards the ongoing scuffle and pulled out his sansetsukon, ready to attack. In the blink of an eye, he was on top of the bird masked villain and began letting loose on him. Delivering a barrage of blows that was more than enough to force the man to release his grip on the dragon hero and take a few steps back.

With Ryukyu now out of the way, Yuuto took another lounge towards the man and got right up in his face. In one fluid motion, he dodged a left hook and grabbed his opponent's bicep with his free hand before activating his quirk.

**"Drain!"**

Much to the villain's surprise, he felt a good portion of his stamina leave his body. With no intention of being put out of commission this early into the fight, he whipped his arm around and threw Yuuto off of him, sending him back a good twenty-five meters. Thankfully, the silver haired hero was able to land on his feet. The rest of the crew were quick to notice the sudden change in the masked man's appearance, he was taller and considerably more muscular than he was a second ago.

_'That should've been enough to bring him down. He either juiced up before coming out here or his capacity has been increased.'_ Yuuto wondered.

"Well isn't this a surprise!" The man smirked under his mask. "Who would've thought I'd run into you of all people..._onii-chan_. Tell me, have you talked to dad lately?!"

Seeing as the cat was now out of the bag, Yuuto felt that there was no further need for his helmet and quickly removed it. He wanted to look his idiot of a younger brother in the eye when he finally brought him down.

"I'm giving you one chance to stand down, Rikiya. You know you were never able to beat me in a fight!"

"Things are a little different now than back then. I've gotten a whole lot stronger!" Rikiya howled before lunging towards him and letting loose a barrage of haymakers. Each blow packing enough force to break the concrete and asphalt that was unfortunate enough to be on the receiving end of his punches. Yuuto knew that he was at a disadvantage when it came to raw power, so avoiding those punches was for the best.

While the two were engaging each other, Ryukyu was next to jump in. The heroine used the distraction that Yuuto was providing to get in close to their opponent and swipe her claws at him. However, the moment that her hand made contact, Rikiya had enough awareness to use his quirk on her and drain her of a good portion of her stamina.

With the added boost, the masked man used his newfound strength to push her off of him before turning his attention back to Yuuto. Although no one could see it, he was smirking underneath his mask.

Hadou saw this all happen and decided that now was the time to strike. The blue haired girl floated to the sky above him and let loose a powerful wave blast. However, Rikiya noticed this in time and was easily able to dodge it. The girl quickly followed up with another attack but it only yielded the same result.

"You're too slow there girly!" The man laughed while gazing up at her. "Hey, you're kinda cute. How about you and m-" His words were cut off when the force of Yuuto's sansetsukon nailed him in the back of the head.

"Didn't your mom tell you to stop being such a perv!"

"Siphon, can't you take any more of his power?" Said Ryukyu through a few labored breaths.

"Taking any more of his stamina will slow me down too much."

"Duck!" Kendou's voice shouted in the background. Forcing Yuuto and Ryukyu to hit the ground without a second thought. Suddenly, a barrage of rocks came flying in from the other end of the street. The attack being more than enough to immobilize Rikiya where he stood.

While Yuuto, Hadou and Rykyu were keeping him busy, Kendou and Uraraka used the crushed pieces of asphalt and concrete that Rikiya produced from his earlier assault to mount their own attack. Essentially, it was the same idea that Midoriya gave Kendou during their first training session once the classes had switched. Except this time, instead of Kodai enlarging the rocks right before impact, Uraraka used her quirk to return their gravity as they hit.

Before the yakuza member could do anything, Kendou already released the contents of her other hand and pelted him once again. This time, keeping him pinned down just long enough for Ryukyu to tackle him into a nearby wall after their attack was over. The two of them slammed into the concrete barrier with so much force that Rikiya felt all of the wind escape his lungs. On top of that, his mask had split in two. Revealing his black hair and burgundy eyes that were exactly like Yuuto's.

Somehow, the man still had enough strength to grab Ryukyu by the leg and fling her across the street. A now very annoyed Rikiya looked around him and decided that Kendou and Uraraka would be first on the pecking order. The man slammed his armored fist into the ground, causing a few massive pieces of jagged concrete to raise up. And then proceeded to grab one of the pieces and throw it directly towards the two girls.

"Itsuka!" Tokage shouted from above them. She wanted to do more in this fight, but with her body spread out and everyone in such close proximity of each other, it wasn't safe enough for her to start sending pieces of her body around.

Kendou was able to react fast enough and activate her shield just in time to block the massive piece of rock from hitting her or Uraraka.

Rikiya then charged directly towards them, but this would prove futile when Yuuto managed to cut him off about halfway. Knowing that his brother wouldn't stop so long as he was conscious, the silver haired man bit the bullet and decided to try and take what was left of his stamina.

**"Soul Siphon!"**

Almost immediately, Rikiya fell to the ground as he felt the effects of his brother's quirk. He was still able to retain his consciousness, but he could barely move his limbs.

Already feeling the added stress on his muscles, Yuuto needed a way to burn off the excess before he could do anything else. Luckily, they just so happened to have a person who's quirk depend on their how much stamina they had in their body.

"Nejire-chan! High five!" The silver haired hero held out his right hand in her direction.

"Huh?" Hadou shot him a confused look.

"Just do it!"

"O-okay." The girl said before descending down to his position. As soon as their hands made contact, Yuuto used his super move to relieve himself of the excess energy.

**"Pathway!"**

In an instant, Hadou felt a surge of additional energy flood into her body. The blue haired girl was amazed at this and wasted no time in firing off some questions.

"Oh wow! Did you just transfer his energy into my body? How does that work? Can you do that with anyone? Is there a limi-"

"Save the questions for later, just blast him and knock him out!" Yuuto ordered.

"Right!" Hadou agreed before firing a wave blast onto Rikiya, sending the black haired villain flying down the street a good thirty meters. Yuuto then proceeded to run over to his brother to confirm that he was out of commission. And thankfully, the man looked to be down for the count.

"He's out cold." The silver haired hero let out a with a sigh.

"It got kind of dodgy there for a second." Ryukyu responded after shrinking back down to her human form and running up next to him.

"You got that right."

"Are we good?" Tokage asked while putting herself back together.

"It looks that way. How is everyone else doing?"

"All of the baddies in the courtyard have been taken down and have already been secured. Everyone else managed to make their way inside."

"Excellent." Ryukyu stated.

Kendou, Uraraka and Hadou were next to make their approach along with the few remaining police officers that stuck around the battle. Everyone looked fine and somehow no one ended up getting caught up in the middle of that.

The group spent the next few minutes putting restraints over Rikiya's arms and body.

"We need to make sure that we keep him isolated from anyone else. We don't need him touching any of the other villains."

"It sounds like a madhouse on the inside." Hadou pointed over the compound. Although everyone in the courtyard was taken care of, they could still hear the fighting going on inside of the buildings.

"You four, head inside and provide backup to anyone that needs it. Me and Siphon can take care of the rest from here." Ryukyu ordered.

Without so much as a word, the four students began making their way over to the gates. But they only managed to make it a few meters before a creepy laugh drew everyone's attention.

"It looks like that booster that Irikana gave me finally kicked in." Rikiya smirked.

"What th-"

In the blink of an eye, all of the officers and sidekicks surrounding Rikiya suddenly dropped to the floor. The black haired man then burst out of his restraints and let out a howl that alerted the nearby heroes.

_'He shouldn't be able to do that without touching anyone.'_

"He should be out cold!" Ryukyu stated.

It was then that Yuuto got a good look at his brother's face. The man had bags under his eyes and there were black spots all over his tongue and gums.

_'He's on trigger?!'_

"Everyone get back!" The dragon themed hero ordered.

Unfortunately for everyone around, the black haired man wasted no time in giving everyone a piece of his mind. Rikiya began letting off a flurry of wild punches in every direction to get everyone away from him.

"Damn you Rikiya, don't tell me that you became a druggie while you were gone!"

"Anything to get the upper hand, onii-chan!" The man shot back.

Over the next ten minutes, the heroes and police spent their time ducking and dodging the man's attacks. Yuuto, Ryukyu and Tokage were able to drag most everyone to safety while Kendou shielded the people close to her from the falling debris that was being kicked up during the scuffle.

"I'm going to try and grab a hold of him. Uravity, when I do that I want you to make us float. Siphon and me will take care of the rest."

"Got it."

The two pro heroes gave each other a quick nod before Yuuto hopped on Ryukyu's back. The dragon themed heroine then flew straight towards the now rampaging yakuza member and managed to grab a hold of both of his arms. "Siphon!"

Yuuto was quick to jump off of the woman's back before grabbing a hold of Rikiya's face and activating his quirk. This was probably going to leave him out of commission for a few minutes, but that was a risk that he was willing to take.

**"Drain!"** The man shouted before taking his brother's energy away from him. And while he was doing that, Uraraka ran up beside them and touched all three of them. Causing the group to begin floating mid-air.

"Nejire, give us everything you got!" The woman shouted to the sky above.

"On it!" Hadou responded before firing off a wave blast. Sending the three of them plummeting into the earth.

After the impact, Yuuto and Ryukyu jumped off of Rikiya to get their bearings. But for some reason, the man was still able to retain his consciousness.

"I'm n-not going down that e-easily." The yakuza member groaned out as he tried to stand back up.

Then seemingly out of nowhere, the sight of Kendou's enlarged fist dropping onto the top of the man's head forced him into the ground. Delivering what was sure to be the final blow. "Just stay down, dammit!"

"What the hell?" Yuuto looked above him to see Tokage's arms and torso floating directly above them.

While the four of them were making their final assault, the green haired girl carried Kendou just high enough to give the orange haired teen enough momentum to mount their own attack just in case the plan didn't work.

Without a second thought, Yuuto used his _"pathway"_ to transfer the excess stamina into Ryukyu before checking the damage. With that final punch, Rikiya was down for the count. And from everything he knew about trigger, and the fact that his brother hadn't tried to drain any of their stamina before getting knocked out. He assumed that the drug had already wore off.

"Are we finally done?!" A now fed up Tokage looked to the others.

"He's definitely out this time." The silver haired man answered. "Trigger's only good for about ten minutes before it starts working its way out of your system."

"Thank god." Kendou breathed out a sigh of relief. Although she spent most of her time keeping her distance and making sure that the others were okay, she was more than a bit stressed out during this entire fiasco.

Before anyone could say anything else, a familiar voice in the distance caught their attention. "Kendou!"

Everyone looked behind them, and much to their surprise Midoriya was standing in the middle of the street. The boy seemed out of breath but for the most past looked completely untouched.

"Wonderboy? What the hell are you doing here, weren't you with Nighteyes's group?" Tokage asked him.

"We need back up, the target is directly under that intersection!" The green haired boy pointed a little further down the road. "We aren't making any headway in this fight and everyone is pinned down!" He continued before immediately turning around running in that direction.

"Izuku, hold up!" Kendou shouted before attempting to run after him.

"Battle Fist, wait!" Yuuto ordered the girl, grabbing her by the shoulder to keep her in place.

"Siphon?" She looked up to him.

For some reason, Yuuto had a weird feeling in his gut. Something about the way Midoriya was acting didn't seem right to him. The first was that he called the girl by her last name instead of her first, or her hero name. The second was that the boy didn't activate his quirk before running off. All of that, along with the fact that he didn't even bother to see if they were okay was weird. Even with that brief interaction, something about the way he was acting was out of character for him.

"What are you doing? He needs help!"

"Just wait a-"

***Boom!***

Yuuto was cut off when the ground about forty meters in front of them erupted, spreading rocks and debris all over the place. Everyone ducked their heads and Kendou activated her shields to protect herself and Tokage. When the dust finally settled, the group of heroes looked up to see what was going on. And when they finally did, they were more than a bit confused as to what they were seeing.

It was Midoriya….

In the air….

With what looked like a child on his back….

Trying to get away from some type of man-sized monster….

"What the hell?!" Tokage shouted, presumably speaking for everyone.

"Izuku?" Kendou looked in wonder as she tried to piece together what exactly was going on. Something didn't make sense. If Midoriya was there, then who was that other Midoriya that they just saw? Before the girl could ponder over it any further, Ryukyu ordered everyone to fall back further down the road.

* * *

To say that everything went to shit would be a gross understatement.

A few minutes after entering the building with Nighteye and Fatgum's teams, Midoriya got separated from the group thanks to one of the villains who apparently had the ability to manipulate the surrounding area. The boy had spent a good seven minutes running around the underground compound before getting blindsided by another yakuza member who somehow managed to slow his movements. Thankfully, Aizawa arrived just in time to bail him out at the last second and two made quick work of the man.

After that, Midoriya came upon Overhaul who was in the middle of a fight with Togata. He had no clue where Nighteye was, but assumed that he also got separated from the group. And that's where things took a turn for the worse.

After quickly dispatching another nearby yakuza member, Midoriya joined the battle. And to say that Overhaul's quirk was a problem would be putting it mildly. Even Togata was having a hard time pinning the man down through the constant interruption of pillars and spikes being flung every which way.

Just as Midoriya was about to get the upper hand, in one final act of desperation Overhaul tried to shoot the little girl to distract the two heroes. Thankfully, the green haired teen was able to get there in time and move her out of the way. The masked man then tried to skewer the two of them alive by sending another wave of spiked pillars at them. In that moment, Midoriya panicked and tried firing off a full powered _"Texas Smash"_ in the direction of the attack.

What happened after that was when things really got interesting.

With no time to think about his now shattered arm, the green haired boy quickly grabbed the girl and tried to move her out of the way. And when the two touched, he noticed that his arm had fully healed. For a split second her wondered if she had some type of healing quirk, but the wave of pain that immediately followed dispelled that notion rather quickly. After that, he was able to put two and two together and realized that her quirk was the cause of it.

His pained thoughts were cut off when another wave of spikes came flying towards him, and in one quick motion he grabbed the girl once again before he let off another successful full powered "smash". He then told the girl to hop on his back. Upon seeing this, Overhaul seemed to become enraged and quite literally brought the roof down on top of them.

This gave Midoriya enough time to figure out what was going on. This girl's quirk was somehow reversing the damage on his body. But at the same time it was also aggravating old injuries that he had experienced before. As ridiculous as this sounded, his best bet at the moment was to keep on pushing his body to the limit and use her quirk to his advantage. He still had no clue how the girl was doing this, but he wasn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Throwing caution to the wind, Midoriya powered up his _'Full Cowling'_ to one hundred percent and leaped into the air with the girl hanging onto him for dear life. The moment he powered up, he could feel his muscles ripping themselves apart. But thanks to the little girl's power, that was simultaneously being relieved. Healing his body just as fast as it was injuring himself.

"Hold on tight!" He told her, only getting a barely audible groan in response.

At the moment, Midoriya was in a less than favorable position. In addition to being in mid-air with a small child on his back, Overhaul was sending massive concrete pillars towards him. On top of that, the familiar buzzing in the back of his head was now going haywire, telling him to get out of there as soon as possible. But considering that they were in a populated area with god knows how many civilians around, that wasn't really an option at the moment.

* * *

Back at U.A., the rest of class 1-B were sitting in the classroom going over the results of their last heroics quiz. Everything was going on pretty normally until Midnight suddenly bursted into the room looking like she had just ran a marathon.

"Vlad! Turn your projector to the JNN!" The R-Rated heroine barked out to her colleague.

"Midnight? What's going o-"

"Just do it!"

The blood themed hero gave her a confused look before activating the projector on the board and immediately turning the channel over to the news. Once the image finally showed up on the screen, everyone in the classroom simultaneously gasped at what they were looking at.

_"The scene here in downtown Tokyo is a complete madhouse! Minutes ago, our news crew caught wind of a hero raid on a suspect group of villains and drug traffickers. We don't know all of the details as of yet, but right now we can only see what's going on below us. At the moment, winner of the U.A. Sports Festival, Izuku Midoriya, also known as "Kurou", is currently engaging in battle with one of the presumed villains as we speak."_ The news reporter stated.

"Holy shit! Izuku!" Jiro shouted in disbelief.

"Aren't Ituska, Tetsutetsu and Setsuna down there as well?" Komori aked those sitting next to her.

"Kick his ass Midoriya!" Awase started punching the air as he cheered on his classmate.

* * *

The quirk inheritor dodged the first pillar by letting off a _"Delaware Smash"_ that pulverized it to pieces. But barely had enough time to throw up his guard before another one flanked him on his right side. Almost immediately, he could tell that his arm had been broken in multiple places. But just as quickly as the pain came, it vanished.

Hoping to get some stable footing, Midoriya fired off a _"New Hampshire Smash"_ into the air above him that sent the two of them down onto the nearby road not too far away from where the rest of the group had been previously standing. Landing with enough force to cause the little girl to let out a small whimper. It probably wasn't a good idea to move too recklessly with her on his back.

In that time, Overhaul had made his way out of the newly made hole in the ground and began his assault. Ripping the ground apart in an attempt to take him down. Midoriya was able to react fast enough and shot a tendril of _'black whip'_ out of his arm and grab onto a nearby light pole, moving them out of the way. However, due to the unregulated amount of strength that was put into this, he went way further than he planned and nearly lost control of his movements.

The second Midoriya turned back around to see what Overhaul was doing, he noticed the body of the same man who broke down the main gate from earlier lying on the ground next to bird masked man villain. Before he had time to think about what to do next, Midoriya watched Overhaul place his hand on top of the unconscious man's head and witnessed him dismantle their bodies and reconstruct himself into some gigantic beast.

The new and improved Overhaul wasted no time in charging towards him while destroying the surrounding area in the process. Growing larger with each passing step. Deciding not to wait for an invitation, Midoriya fired off yet another full power _"Texas Smash"_ at the beast. But much to his chagrin, Overhaul was barely affected by it.

Obviously overwhelming air pressure wasn't going to work in this scenario, so he needed to stop the yakuza member's movements before he tried anything else. With that in mind, Midoriya stuck out both of his hands towards the villain and did something that under normal circumstances, he wouldn't be able to do.

**"Black Whip: Blackout!"** The boy shouted.

The onlookers in the surrounding areas watched as what could only be described as a tidal wave of dark energy plunged forth from the boy's arms. Completely engulfing the villain in a net of black tendrils that stopped him in his tracks.

* * *

Back at U.A., the students of 1-A were also watching the live feed of the broadcast. All of them looking in amazement at the sheer amount of power that their classmate was displaying.

"A mad banquet of darkness." Tokoyami simply said.

"Another brother has joined the fray." Kuroiro responded.

_"C'mon Midoriya, show that guys who's boss!"_ Tsunotri shouted at the projector in her native English.

* * *

Yuuto decided that now was the time to jump in and started running towards Midoriya. "Kurou!" He shouted to get his attention.

"Stay back!"

"What?!"

"I'm about to put this guy down for good!"

"What are yo-"

"This won't be enough to stop me, brat!" Overhaul taunted him and as began violanety moving around, breaking _'black whip's'_ hold on him with each passing second. It was now that Midoriya decided to end this battle once and for all.

"Eri-chan, hold on tight!" He ordered the girl before launching himself off the ground, leaving a small crater where he once stood.

The others watched in awe as he flew through the air like a speeding bullet. With his arms still occupied, Midoriya brought his feet together in front of him and aimed directly for Overhaul's body which was fully exposed in the mouth of the beast. What happened next would be the talk of the news for the next two days.

**"One for All: Full Cowling - Shoot Style, Manhattan Smash!"**

Midoriya delivered a two footed kick that sent a shockwave throughout the entire area. The wind pressure alone was enough to blow everyone back a few meters.

"What the actual fuck!" Tokage screamed out as she tried to keep her feet planted on the ground.

Once the shockwave passed and dust finally settled, Kendou the others were finally able to get a good look at the aftermath of that ridiculous attack. Most of the street was in absolute ruin and a few of the surrounding buildings had cracks in them. But for the most part, everything was contained.

Their eyes briefly scanned the area and they all let out a small sigh of relief once they finally got a good look at Midoriya and the others.

Despite somehow being able to shield himself at the last second, the force of the impact was still enough for Overhaul to lose hold of his quirk and separate him from his two partners. The three of them along with Midoriya and the little girl were all passed out in the middle of the road.

"Izuku!" Kendou shouted as she ran up to him, covering the distance in barely a few seconds. The others wasted no time in joining her.

The orange haired girl was relieved to see that he was still breathing, and somehow looked uninjured despite what was surely him overusing his quirk. His uniform was slightly torn in a few places, but not enough to reveal the scarring on his body. And the brace on his right arm was completely destroyed from the elbow down.

Kendou definitely had more than a few questions about what exactly went on inside of the compound, but those could be put on hold for the time being.

"Help! We need help over here!" The very distraught voice of Togata suddenly called out in the distance.

Everyone looked over to the hole that was previously made a few minutes ago to see the blonde haired student frantically waving them down. His face almost one of pure anguish.

"Lemillion, what's wrong?"

"I-it's Nighteye...h-he's...he's…"

Tokage and Uraraka were the first to act and quickly made their way over to his position. However, everyone watched the two girls suddenly pause once they reached the opening. Whatever it was that caused them to freeze up like that, it certainly wasn't good.

"I got him!" Uraraka shouted before jumping into the hole, Tokage immediately following her lead.

After a few seconds, the group watched as Eraserhead, Lock Rock and Nighteye floated up to the surface. However, everyone's blood almost froze when they got a good look at the state that they were in. Aizawa looked pretty much uninjured, but was out cold. Lock Rock had a pretty decent amount of blood on his hand, but other than that, he seemed fine.

The one person that everyone's eyes were drawn to was Nighteye himself. The man looked absolutely ragged and there was blood all over his suit. But the one thing that stood out to them the most was the fact that his entire left arm was gone. There was a bandage wrapped around the newly amputated limb that was made to stop the bleeding. But even from her position next to Midoriya's unconscious body, Kendou could see that it was barely doing enough.

"What happened?" Ryukyu said as she looked over to Togata.

"W-we...I-I...after we found Overhaul and his crew, we started battling. I was too busy trying to get around him when he almost got me with one of his attacks. Then a gunshot went off and Sir got hit."

After hearing that, Yuuto ripped off a piece of his suit to double down on the improvised tourniquet. While he was doing what he could, he looked over the man's body and noticed a hole in his clothing on the right side of his abdomen. Needing to get a better look, the silver haired man tore away a fabric and noticed a dart like object embedded deep into his skin. A chill went down his spine as he immediately recognized what the object was.

_'Oh no.'_

"You there, call the EMT's!" Ryukyu ordered the two police officers standing next to her. "Nejire, we're going in to see if anyone else needs back up."

"Right!" The girl nodded before the two of them ran into the compound.

As the two of them made their leave, Kendou noticed the grim expression on Yuuto's face. Whatever was going on right now, she had a feeling that the madness wasn't quite over yet.

* * *

"Ahh!" Midoriya practically shouted after finally regaining consciousness. His eyes darting around the unfamiliar room in an attempt to get his bearings straight.

"Whoa, Izuku take it easy." Kendou's voice quickly snapped him out of his momentary shock long enough for him to notice the girl holding onto his left hand.

"W-where am I?" He asked while taking another look around the room.

"We're in the hospital." The girl explained. "After we rounded up the rest of the yakuza members, we managed to get all of you here pretty quickly. You've been out for like four hours."

"Is everyone alright? What about you?"

"I'm fine." The girl reassured her boyfriend. She couldn't help but find it a bit adorable how he was more concerned about everyone else's safety instead of his own. "Everyone's okay. Tetsutetsu got beat up pretty bad, but Recovery Girl made her way over here and he'll be good as new in a couple of days. Besides that, none of the other students suffered any serious injuries. That little girl is okay too."

"Thank goodness." He let out a relieved sigh as he drug his hand through his hair.

"But…" Kendou started with a shaky tone. The quirk inheritor taking the time to notice the grim look that suddenly appeared on her face.

"But what?"

"It's...Nighteye."

"What happened?"

"He's in pretty bad shape."

"What do you mean?"

"H-he lost his arm, and a good amount of blood."

"But he'll be okay right?" He asked her. Nighteye may not have been his favorite person in the world. But the last thing he wanted was for something bad to happen to the man.

"Yeah, they have him in the ICU right now but…"

"Itsuka, what's wrong?"

"His quirk. He got hit with one of those quirk bullets." She managed to let out. "Apparently he got shot with one of them before you ran into Overhaul. Yuuto found it on him after you passed out. We don't know all the details just yet, but from what Yuuto said...it's gone."

After hearing that, a sudden tightness developed in the green haired boy's chest. Of all the things that could've happened, Nighteye losing his quirk was it's very own tragedy. The ability to see into the future was one so rare and valuable that it could turn the course of any situation.

The young couple spent the next ten minutes going over the events of the raid. In the middle of Kendou explaining her side of what happened, a cold chill went down Midoriya's spine after hearing that someone apparently managed to impersonate his appearance. According to Kendou, Tsukauchi let her know that a member of the _'League of Villains'_ had a quirk that allowed her to transform into other people after consuming their blood. From what they knew, this same villain is also a suspect in the apparent kidnapping of another student from Shiketsu. The green haired boy had no clue when or how they managed to get some of his blood. But the fact that a member of the League could transform into him or any other student was more than enough cause for alarm.

Before his thoughts could descend into any further darkness, Midoriya was brought back to reality by his girlfriend wrapping her arms around his body and pulling him into a tight hug.

"I-Itsuka?" The now red faced teen looked down to her with confusion.

"I'm so glad that you're alright." She let out with a bit of strain in her voice. "Seeing you fight that guy was probably the coolest and most stressful thing ever."

"I'm glad that you're alright to-"

Midoriya was cut off when he felt a pair of soft lips crash into his own. Everything around him seemed to completely freeze. The boy's heart rate heart immediately skyrocketed as his brain tried to fully processed what was happening. It was graceless, kind of rough and they definitely bumped noses as their faces met, but it was a kiss nonetheless.

His first kiss, with Kendou….

* * *

"Hmmm."

"What's wrong, Miko?" Daisuke asked his wife with a bit of concern on his face.

"I just had the strangest feeling that our grandkids are gonna have orange hair and green eyes." The black haired woman stated.

"Really? Y'know, I had a similar feeling a couple of weeks ago."

"Weird." The woman shrugged before getting back to work.

* * *

The two teens stayed like that for a few seconds before remembering that they were in fact human beings that needed to breath oxygen to survive and slowly broke the intimate contact.

Once their lips parted ways, the young couple simply stared at each other in complete silence as they tried to wrap their heads around what just happened. Kendou had no clue what force compelled her to do something so brash in that moment, and she was having a hard time trying to find the right words to say. But one thing was definitely clear in her mind. She wanted to do it again.

"I-I-Itsuka…."

"W-what?" The furiously blushing ginger teen said while absentmindedly twisting the end of her ponytail in her left hand. "I-isn't the h-hero supposed to get a kiss after saving the day...or s-something like that?"

There were many things that Midoriya could've done in that moment. Lean in and return the sudden act of romantic affection, pull her in close for a near bone crushing hug, jump through the roof in a dramatic display of happiness. But in the end, there was only one thing that the green haired teen could muster up the courage to do.

He fainted….

Luckily, Kendou was fast enough to stop the boy from completely falling off of the bed. But at that exact same moment, the door to the hospital room suddenly flew open.

"Izuku!"

As if things weren't already bad enough, Kendou looked back to face the door and was met with the sight of Jiro, Todoroki, Tokoyami and Shiozaki standing there with a series of concerned looks on their faces.

"W-what are you g-guys doing here?" The oranged teen stuttered out while failing to hide the blush on her face.

"We saw what happened on the news an- Holy shit! What happened?" Jiro asked as she noticed the green haired boy, red faced and completely unconscious in the girl's arms.

"Is he alright?" Shiozaki followed up.

"Should we call a nurse?" Todoroki questioned with slightly more emotion than she was used to seeing from the heterochromatic teen.

"U-uh…." Kendou looked to others, her embarrassment growing stronger with each passing second.

_'Well shit….'_

* * *

**Author's Notes: Wow, a lot happened in this chapter.**

**1\. I originally planned on Kendou having more of the spotlight on her end of the fight. But while I was writing this, I kept having issues finding a way to get her involved. Don't worry though, she'll have her moment to shine once the Joint Training session happens. I'm still trying to put the teams together for that. So if you guys have any suggestions on who you want to see partnered up, I'm all ears.**

**2\. I honestly have no idea what I'm going to do with the whole Nighteye losing his quirk thing. It came down to either him, Yuuto or Mirio losing their quirks and just couldn't bring myself to let either of those other two take the hit. Also, I have a plan for the both of them later on down the line and they both need their quirks to make it work. I feel like I'm picking on Mirio with how much stuff he's had to go through so far.**

**3\. This entire fight did not go the way that I had originally outlined. I hope you guys enjoyed it. I tried to give a brief rundown on what happened inside of the compound mainly because I didn't feel like writing that entire part out. I also just kept giving Midoriya a ton of obstacles that would've slowed him down long enough to run into Overhaul at the right time.**

**4\. I completely forgot that Kendou and Midoriya haven't kissed so far in the story, luckily someone pointed it out to me before I finished this chapter. I felt like it was pretty appropriate moment for it to finally happen. And Midoriya's reaction was definitely in character for him.**

**5\. Next chapter you guys will finally find out the verdict on Bakugou. I'm going to do my best to wrap up that subplot in the next few chapters. I think that it will be a good stopping point for that. Also, something pretty big is going to happen as a result of that.**

**6\. The "Midoriya Reconciliation Arc" is not over yet. A couple of more key characters will be interacting with him. Some have been long overdue. I know that a few of the 1-A students are pretty OOC, but that's honestly just for the sake of the story.**

**Like always, thank you for reading and don't be afraid to drop a review.**


	41. Curveball

There weren't many times in her short sixteen years of life where Kendou felt utterly helpless. Even with all of the madness that came along with being a U.A. student, she could usually maintain a decent grip on whatever situation that she found herself in. Years of martial arts training had taught her how to stay on her toes and get a handle on things around her. A philosophy that very easily translated into everyday life. However, right now she was completely at the mercy of others. One would say that she was caught in between a rock and a hard place. Kendou thought that she was going to have a pretty easy day today. And boy was she wrong. Even as she now tried to find a way to get herself out of the predicament that she currently found herself in. There was still one question burning in the back of orange haired girl's mind.

Why in the hell were her and Midoriya on a lunch date…with their parents?

Earlier that morning, Kendou had received a phone call from her mom and dad saying that they were going to be in Musutafu on business and wanted to spend the afternoon with her. Of course she nearly jumped at the offer, especially since she barely got to see them ever since moving into the dorms.

Everything had went on pretty normally from that point on. Meeting up with Mikoto and Daisuke at the train station, walking around a bit to get familiar with the area and "randomly" deciding to stop at a hibachi grill to satiate their growing hunger. Needless to say, Kendou was more than enjoying the weekend outing with her family. That was until Midoriya and Inko both walked into the same restaurant about five minutes later and took a seat at their table.

On Midoriya's end, the morning went pretty much the same way as his girlfriend's. After getting an early phone call from his mother telling him that she had the day off and wanted to spend some time with him, he immediately made his way home. To his surprise, the woman was almost adamant about going over to a hibachi grill near downtown Musutafu. Of course he complied, but at this moment he was definitely regretting that decision.

"Oh my, everything looks absolutely delicious!" Said Inko as she looked through the menu.

"I agree, Inko-chan." Mikoto responded.

"We should come here more often. I've heard nothing but good things about this place." Daisuke added.

While the adults were conversing like lifelong friends. The two teens were looking around the table trying to figure out exactly what the hell was going on. Both sharing more than a few glances with each other in hopes of getting the answers that they so desperately needed. After a solid five minutes of this, Kendou finally decided to get down to the bottom of the situation.

"Okay, can some please tell what's going on?" The orange haired girl asked no one in particular.

"Whatever do you mean, sweetie? We're just having a lovely afternoon meal between friends. Isn't that right, Inko-chan?"

"Of course." The green haired woman smiled.

"Why…h-how…when?"

"Itsuka, use your words. But if you're trying to ask us how we all know each other, then you have Inko-chan to thank for that." Daisuke told her.

"Mom, what is he talking about?" Midoriya gave Inko a confused look.

"It's a funny story actually." The green haired woman started with a grin. "While the two of you were doing your work study with Siphon. I ended up receiving a very interesting picture."

"What picture?"

Inko proceeded to pull out her phone and open her photo app to reveal a certain image of the young couple snuggled up together on a familiar looking couch.

_'Damn you Yuuto!'_ Both teens screamed internally.

* * *

_~Heruzo House~_

"Achoo!" The silver haired man violently sneezed as he finished up a background check that his wife asked him to do for her.

"You okay?" Sen asked her husband.

"Yeah, someone must be talking about me?"

* * *

"After that, I had Toshinori-kun give me the contact info for Mikoto-chan and Daisuke-kun."

_'Toshinori-san, you traitor!'_

* * *

_~Principal Nezu's Office~_

"Achoo!"

"Toshinori-kun, are you coming down with a cold?"

"I hope not, sir."

* * *

"Shortly after that, Inko-chan got in touch with us and we were so excited that we all planned this little meet up. And so, here we are!" Mikoto followed up with a devious grin.

"We needed some time to work around our schedules and find a day where all of us would be free. We didn't see the need to bother the two of you with the details."

If there was ever a time for a villain to appear out of nowhere and cause a much needed distraction, then now was that time.

"Imagine our surprise when we found out that our only daughter was dating such a wonderful young man." Mikoto mused, causing the youngest Midoriya to blush at her words.

"Oh Mikoto-chan, you're too kind. I must say though, I never expected my darling baby Izuku to gain the affection of such a lovely young lady like Itsuka-chan here." Inko replied with her special brand of motherly fluff. Causing Kendou's face to erupt into a shade of red she previously thought was impossible.

"I must say Izuku-kun, your battle with that yakuza boss was quite the spectacle. We knew you were powerful from how you handled everyone at the Sports Festival, but that entire affair had me on the edge of my seat. I can see that you're going to be a great hero one day."

"T-t-thank you, s-sir." The green haired boy stuttered out. Midoriya was doing everything in his power to make sure that he didn't make a complete fool of himself in front of the man. This was his first time formally meeting his girlfriend's father and he wanted to make sure that he didn't look like a total idiot in front of him.

While they were still waiting for their waitress to come by, Midoriya couldn't help but notice the resemblance between the three members of the Kendou clan. Obviously Kendou inherited her eye color from her mother, but she got the bright orange hair from her father. The man had a lean but muscular build not dissimilar to his own. But he couldn't help but wonder how old he was. To be frank, Daisuke looked young, really young. He wouldn't be surprised if the man was mistaken for his girlfriend's brother instead of her father.

"I'm just glad that the five of us are able to spend the day together like this. I can already tell that we're going to have _ample time_ to get to know each other a lot better."

"I think you're right about that, Mikoto-chan."

"So you two...should we start saving up for the wedding now? Or do you want to wait until we have a date officially set?"

"Dad!" Kendou practically shrieked at her father's words.

"Oh, I know the perfect venue for the reception! We'll have to book it out a year in advance though." Inko followed up with stars in her eyes.

"Mom!" The quirk inheritor looked to his mother with nothing but pure anguish in his voice.

Yup, a villain attack would be perfect right about now….

* * *

~Class 1-A Dorm~

"What?!" The majority of the students of 1-A shouted in unison.

"For the second time…" Aizawa lazily groaned out. "Katsuki Bakugou will no longer be attending classes here at U.A.. For reasons that none of you need to know, he and his family have chosen to pull him out of our school."

"Um, Aizawa-sensei." Mineta was the first to raise his hand. "Does this mean that Bakugou was expelled?"

"Technically speaking, no. Although I can tell you that he was kicked out of the hero course, Bakugou chose to leave of his own volition."

"Shit…" Sero cursed under his breath.

"I came here to inform all of you before you heard it somewhere else. With that being said, we are looking to fill his newly vacant spot with another student. So expect to be receiving a new classmate in the coming weeks depending on how your training goes." The pro hero simply said before turning on his heels and making his way to the door. "That will be all, have a nice night."

With that, the nocturnal hero left his students alone to no doubt discuss this shocking new development.

"Holy shit."

"What the hell happened?" Tsuburaba questioned those around him.

"No clue." Some of them gave a confused shrug.

"I'm honestly surprised that it took this long." Monoma whispered to Tsuburaba under his breath. Earning an agreeing nod and smirk from the _'solid air'_ user.

Out the corner of his eye, Ojiro noticed the almost nauseous look on his red haired classmate's face. Everyone knew that out of everyone in their class, Kirishima was the closest to Bakugou. The two were the best of friends, if you could even call their relationship dynamic a "friendship".

"Hey Kirishima, are yo-"

"This is Midoriya's fault!" The _'hardening'_ quirk user shouted with a heavy tone of anger in his voice.

"What?"

"I don't know how, but this has Midoriya's name written all over it."

"And what makes you so sure, Kirishima-san?" Shishida quirked a furry eyebrow at him.

"Think about it, no one else in our class has a problem with Bakugou except for him. He's the only one!"

_'I wouldn't say the only one.'_ More than a few of the students thought. The majority of them being the former 1-B students. During their brief time in class, they made no effort in hiding the fact that they did not approve of the _'explosion'_ quirk user's behavior.

"Now is not the time for baseless accusations, Kirishima-kun." Iida quickly tried to calm his classmate down. "Although this is shocking news, we mustn't go around and putting undue blame onto others."

"And what part of it is "undue"? The two of them have had it in for each other ever since school started. He even attacked him back at the camp, along with the rest of us."

"You can't really put the blame for that on Midoriya-san. He was under the influence of a villain's quirk after all." Yaoyorozu interjected. A few of the students giving her weird looks at the fact that she was even defending the green haired boy in the first place.

"But still…"

While everyone was certainly thrown off by this, most of them couldn't really say that they were completely shocked by it. They were curious as to what exactly transpired to lead to such drastic action from the school. Only a certain four students had a good idea as to why this happened.

"Although Bakugou-san's technical expulsion is a bit surprising, it's not completely shocking." Monoma stated.

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Kirishima scowled at him.

"C'mon man, you hang around him more than anyone else here. You know as well as the rest of us that Bakugou's a total asshole." Tsuburaba followed up.

"Okay sure, Bakugou is a little hot headed. But most of the time he's just blowing hot air."

"I'm not so sure about that." Hagakure spoke up for the first time in this discussion.

Unknown to the invisible girl, Uraraka and Todoroki shot her a questioning look. The both of them more than a bit curious as to where she was going with this.

"Still though, you guys can't tell me that you don't think that Midoriya had something to do with this."

"Y'know, I've been meaning to ask this for a while but what exactly is your guy's problem with Midoriya anyway? He seems like a pretty cool guy if you ask me." Tsuburaba inquired. Sure he barely knew the guy. But outside of being kind of a loner he never appeared hostile in his opinion.

"Seriously, Midoriya has been really helpful lately when it came to teaching me new Japanese phrases." Tsunotori said.

_'Huh, so that's how her Japanese has improved so much lately.'_

"Yeah, if by _"cool"_ then you mean an arrogant asshole who won't even give others the time of day." Sero spoke up while indignantly folding his arms.

"And Bakugou is somehow better?"

"Hey, at least he acknowledges that we all exist. I'm pretty sure the only people Midoriya ever talked to in our class was Jiro and Tokoyami. Sure, the guy doesn't throw as many temper tantrums as Bakugou does, but he's still too stuck up to even talk to us."

"If that's the case, then you must have a problem with me as well." Todoroki asked the _'tape'_ quirk user. His face showcasing his usually stoic expression.

"To be honest Todoroki, you aren't any better. But you were never as douchey about it as Midoriya."

"Okay, this conversation is starting to get out of hand."

"Indeed." Tokoyami nodded in agreeance.

"You guys are missing the whole point! Midoriya did something that somehow convinced the school to let him go." Kirishima almost shouted before heading towards the door. "And I'm about to go over there and find out."

"So what? You're just going to head over to the 1-B dorms this late at night and demand to talk to Midoriya? You do realize that you don't have any proof that he was even involved in all of this." Ojiro told him.

"Aizawa-sensei said that he would've been kicked from the hero course regardless. So obviously he must've done something pretty serious to get canned." Satou added.

"Kirishima, we get that the guy's your best friend and all, but at the end of the day he's an arrogant douchebag who obviously screwed up his chance at becoming a hero."

"How can you guys even say that? Sure Bakugou's a bit rough around the edges sometimes, but he's actually a really cool guy once you get to know him."

Tsuburaba couldn't help but scoff at that statement. "Dude, he hasn't called anyone by their actual name since the start of the school year. He only calls us "extras" or "losers"."

"You just don't know him like I do."

"Are you sure that you actually know him as well as you think, Kirishima?" Hagakure asked him.

"Huh?"

"I'm just asking. What if Bakugou wasn't as cool of a guy as you think?" The girl continued.

"And what's that supposed to mean?"

"Toru-chan." Uraraka gave her vice-rep a rather nervous look. She had a pretty good feeling about where this conversation was heading and wasn't too keen on the idea of what she was no doubt about to do. But a part of her didn't really want to stop it.

"I'm just saying. What if you found out Bakugou was actually as shitty of a person as he acts?"

"There's no way that he'd be that type of person. He's trying to be a hero after all. It's not like he'd just start attacking people for no reason."

The invisible let out a very audible sigh before pulling her phone out of her pocket. This action earning a few curious glances from the rest of her classmates.

"Hagakure, what are you doing?" Todorki asked her.

"Look, we're getting nowhere with this. We can stand here talking about this for the rest of the night and it still won't change a thing."

"Toru-chan, I don't think that's such a good ide-"

"Midoriya's already told us that we could do whatever we wanted with this video. And I honestly hope that we can just put this entire thing to rest." Hagakure cut her off while still scrolling through her phone.

"What video are you talking about?"

"Yaomomo, can you make me a smart cable so that I can hook my phone up to the T.V.?"

"Sure." The raven haired teen nodded with a confused look.

"Hagakure-san, what is this?"

"Just watch." The girl simply said as she hooked the device up to the main television in the common area while signalling the rest of them to gather around.

And watch is exactly what they did.

Before any of the students could question what they were looking at, the video started playing.

Everyone was more than surprised to see Midoriya and Bakugou standing in what looked like "Training Ground Beta" late at night, but they all went silent once the two started talking. You could almost hear a pin drop in the common area as a ton of new information came to light concerning the history between the two of them. While bombshell after bombshell were dropped through the heated back-and-forth between the two, everyone had a slew of different reactions.

Todoroki raised an eyebrow when it was revealed that he was one of the targets during the attack on the camp.

Tsunotori's heart almost stopped after hearing that Midoriya threw himself off a bridge not even a couple of years ago.

Shishida and Monoma shared a quick glance with each other that pretty much said: "I'm not even surprised."

Ashido could already feel a pit growing in her stomach.

Iida was clenching his fist in anger after hearing such horrible words from Bakugou's mouth.

Yaoyorozu placed a hand over her mouth with an expression of pure shock on her face.

And all the while, Kirishima just simply stared at the screen wide eyed and absolutely floored by what he was hearing. He was having a hard time processing the entire interaction and his jaw almost hit the floor when he watched Bakugou attack Midoriya while his back was turned to him.

When the footage stopped, there was a heavy silence amongst the students of 1-A for a good twenty seconds. No one really knew what to do or say about the video that they had just witnessed.

"Wow…" Mineta let out after releasing a breath that he wasn't aware that he was holding in.

"I knew that Bakugou was a piece of shit, but I didn't think he was that bad."

"I know I'm probably the last person to say this, but that dude has some serious issues." Kamakiri spoke up.

"T-this…this can't be right. There's definitely some t-type of misunderstanding." Kirishima looked around to the others. There was no way that any of this was true. Bakugou was such a cool and determined guy. Someone like him wouldn't torment another person for simply not having a quirk.

"What was there to misunderstand? You heard them, Bakugou bullied Midoriya because he thought he was quirkless."

_"He seriously tried to commit suicide?"_ Tsunotori said in complete disbelief.

"Hold on, we don't know the whole story just yet." Kirishima blurted out. "I'm going over to 1-B and getting Midoriya."

"And what exactly do you think that will accomplish, Kirishima-kun?" Yaoyorozu said to him before he even made the first step towards the door.

"If we just talk to him then…I-I…I don't know. But-"

"Dude, do you seriously think that Midoriya would want to talk to anyone of us about this?" Tsuburaba asked him.

While this was going on, Hagakure turned to her pink skinned classmate who had a grim look on her face. "You okay, Mina?"

In truth, Ashido was not okay. The pinkette's mind had been reeling over the past couple of minutes.

How could she have been so stupid? The evidence was right there in front of her face and she wasn't even able to put two and two together.

Sure, she wouldn't go so far as to say that her and Bakugou were the best of friends. But she hung out around him almost as much as Kirishima and Sero did. She always acknowledged that Bakugou was a foulmouth, hot headed guy who could stand to take a chill pill once in a while. And never wasted the opportunity to call him out on it, albeit in her own playful way. But with all this new information, she felt like a complete idiot. She always thought that the guy was just blowing smoke with his frankly hilarious nicknames/insults.

Ashido hated bullies, this was part of the reason why she even wanted to become a hero in the first place. And here she had befriended the exact type of person that she couldn't stand. What was even worse was that she almost tanked her own career to go rescue this same person.

"This is just…a lot." The pinkette responded to her invisible friend's question.

"Look, the only reason I showed you guys this video was to give some context to the situation. We didn't know that Aizawa-sensei was going to give him the boot but-"

"You showed him that video?" Krisihima looked at Hagakure in disbelief.

"Of course we did."

"Why?"

"Because on top of everything that was said, Bakugou decided to try and attack Midoriya when he chose not to fight him."

"It would've irresponsible not to turn over the contents of the video to the teachers." Tokoyami added on.

"They are correct." Shishida nodded.

"There, so now you guys know what's going on."

"So what are we going to do about this?"

"Nothing." Uraraka simply said, hoping to bring an end to all of this madness. "The situation has already been handled and judgment has been passed. Bakugou's gone and it's his own fault."

"Look Kirishima-kun, I know that Bakugou-san is your best friend but what he did wasn't right."

"And that guy said that he wanted to be a hero?" Tsuburaba gave a sarcastic scoff.

**"Y'know Midoriya...I thought you wanted to be a hero, but I guess I was wrong."** Kirishima's mind flashed back to that day in the hospital before their failed attempt at a rescue. No wonder Midoriya didn't want to go with them. Sure, he had more than enough reason not to in the first place, reasons that he chose to ignore in that moment. But now there was an entirely new layer to his reluctance.

"Alright everyone, I think that's enough excitement for the time being. I suggest that we just drop this topic and move on. There's nothing any of us can do about it anyway."

"Yaoyorozu-san's right. To be honest, I'd rather forget that any of this even happened." Monoma agreed.

And with that, the 1-A students began splitting off. Some of them heading up to their rooms to turn it in for the night while a few others went to the kitchen for a pre-bed snack. However, one student was left alone in the common area to think things over.

While Kirishima sat in silence had thought about everything that lead up to this point.

* * *

"So as you all know, the U.A. cultural festival is coming up in a few weeks. And just like every other class, we'll be expected to host some kind of event for the people who attend." Kendou said to the rest of the 1-B students while her and Tokage were standing at the front of the classroom.

"Because of all of the nonsense that our school has been through this year, we need to make sure that everyone, students and civilians alike, enjoy themselves and have a good time. The school board is on the principal's ass so we need to make sure that things go off without a hitch." Tokage continued.

"So what are we gonna be doing?"

"I'm so glad you asked!" Tokage cheered before turning around to face the smartboard and writing the words: _"Hero Students for Hire"_ in big, bold letters.

"You guys wanna explain?" Tetsutetsu asked, a slightly uncomfortable feeling welling in his gut.

A devilish smile formed on the _'lizard tail splitter'_ user's face before she spoke. One that sent an unnerving chill down the spines of most of the class.

"It's pretty simple. Students from around the school can buy tickets and redeem them with selected boys from the class, a.k.a the heroes. The tickets themselves are pretty cheap, with varying prices depending on the time value they can be exchanged for."

"For example, red is the cheapest and gets you a total time of ten minutes. The next highest is blue, that will get you twenty. Gold will get you thirty. White gets you forty-five and black will get you an entire hour." Kendou followed up with an annoyed scowl on her face.

There was a brief moment of silence while everyone in the room processed what was said. More than a few of them had questions about the whole thing. But overall they couldn't argue that is wasn't a good idea.

"The money we raise from this will be used to buy something for the dorm that we all can use and enjoy. We would greatly appreciate if all of the guys participate in this."

"That being said…Wonderboy, Kaminari, Awase and Kaibara. The four of you have no say in the matter, you _will_ be participating." Tokage told them.

"And why the hell is that?!" Awase nearly shot out of chair in defiance after hearing this. There were a few reasons why he wasn't too keen on this idea. But the main one was that he didn't want to embarrass himself in front of any potential "buyers".

"Because, you four are the most attractive guys in class and we need to get as many students on board as possible. On top of that, with Wonderboy's recent jump in popularity after the raid there's gonna be a lot of hype and attention around it."

The four aforementioned students couldn't help but blush at the green haired girl's blunt comment.

"I'm still not completely on board with this." Kaibara groaned out with a dejected look on his face.

"Shiozaki, help us out here! You can't be okay with this bullshit, I mean this is like...prostitution." Awase looked to his vine haired classmate for help.

"I was adamantly against this entire thing for that very reason, but the girls decided it through a vote and their side won." The girl said with a certain tone of disgust in her voice.

"When the heck did you guys vote?!"

"And why weren't we a part of it?"

"I'm actually surprised that Kendou-chan is okay with this, especially since Midoriya-kun is probably gonna be one of the more sought after people."

"For the record, I voted against it as well." The orange haired class rep stated with a deadpan expression. In fact, she was the first one to try and shoot down this entire idea.

"As much as I'd love to spend the day with a bunch of cute girls, I kinda have to agree. This seems like it could be a massive headache. I'd rather jump off a building than spend my ti-"

***Smack!*** The sound of Jiro's open palm slamming into the _'electrification'_ quirk user's face cut him off.

"What the hell, dude?!" Kaminari looked to the girl with a tear in his eye while rubbing his newly reddened cheek. Slightly regretting the fact that Kan let the students sit where they wanted instead of having assigned seats.

"That's not funny, you idiot!" The purple haired teen shot back with a very angry expression.

"Geez calm down, it was just a joke."

"You shouldn't joke about stuff like that!"

"Okay...moving on. So, while the guys are being pawned off like cheap hookers, what are the girls going to be doing?" Tetsutetsu asked.

"The girls will be holding a concert at the end of the day that will be lead by Kyoka. Apparently the teachers had a drawing to see which class would be the closing act and we won." Said Tokage.

"Seriously?"

"Yup, and to top it all off, our very own class rep here will be taking part in the school beauty pageant!" The green haired teen continued with an exaggerated pointing motion.

_'Wait what?!'_ Midoriya's immediately perked up.

"Wait what?!" An equally confused Kendou looked to her vice-rep. This was her first time hearing about this.

"Oh that's a really awesome idea!" Komori interjected with almost manic glee. "It'd be awesome to see the class rep up there on stage!"

"There's no way in he-"

Tokage was quick to detach her head and one of her arms before sending herself across the room and wrapping it around the boy's shoulder. "Wonderboy, you agree right? Don't you think that Itsuka would look amazing out there on stage?"

_"Think about it loverboy, you know with these beauty pageants we're gonna have to get her to try on a ton of cute outfits. I can even snap a couple of pictures for you for your...private collection."_ She whisper-shouted just loud enough for everyone in the class to hear.

"I-I-I…" Midoriya stuttered with furious blush on his face.

"Hey, don't go putting any ideas in his head!" A now red faced Kendou nearly shouted.

"I say we put it to a vote!" Kaibara spoke up, hoping to get back at one of the girls for putting him in this situation.

"That's a great idea!" Komori agreed.

"I'm no-"

"All those in favor of Itsuka doing the beauty pageant, raise your hand!" Tokage asked her classmates.

Everyone with the exception of Kendou, Midoriya, Shiozaki and Kodai put their hands up in agreeance. The first two for obvious reasons. Shiozaki, because she had a feeling that Tokage had some lewd ulterior motives in mind. And the later simply because the black haired girl had no strong opinion about it either way.

"All who oppose?"

***Crickets***

"It's settled then!" The green haired teen began cackling as if she just achieved victory.

At the front of the classroom, Kendou began rubbing her temples in hopes of fighting off what was sure to be an oncoming migraine. Already planning how she was going to get back her ever questionable choice of a best friend.

* * *

"Are you fucking kidding me?!" Jiro practically shouted after hearing Todoroki and Tokoyami's brief rundown on what happened in the 1-A dorms the night before.

At the moment, Midoriya, Jiro, Todoroki and Tokoyami were all sitting at one of the outdoor picnic tables during their lunch period. It had been a while since the four of them had hung out as a group. But what the two 1-B students thought was going to be a simple mid-day outing between friends ended up being a total crisis.

"I apologize, Izuku." Tokayami looked to the boy with great shame. "I should've stopped her, however I-"

"It's fine Fumikage…." Midoriya waved off after picking his head up off the table. "I told Uraraka-san and Hagakure-san that they could do whatever they wanted with the video. So I shouldn't really be surprised that something like this happened."

"The rest of the class promised to keep their mouths shut about the entire thing. But in this scenario, I think it would be best to plan for the worst." Todoroki stated.

"Thank you for doing that, Shouto."

Suddenly, Jiro stood up and began stomping her way over to the cafeteria. Her face full of determination and a slight bit of rage.

"Where are you going?" Midoriya asked.

"I'm about to give Toru a piece of my mind. I can't believe she would do something so fucking stupid! Ochako too!"

"Kyoka it's fine, really. You don't have to do that."

"You're right, I don't have to. I _want_ to." The purple haired teen shot back.

"Can we just get back to our lunch and forget this entire thing even happened?" The boy looked to her pleading eyes.

"But-"

"Please?"

"Ugh...fine." The rocker teen huffed out while folding her arms in annoyance. "But the next time I see her she's literally going to get an earful from me."

"We thought it'd be best to let you know now before someone blindsided you about this. To be honest, I think you should try and avoid Kirishima if you can help it." The heterochromatic teen stated.

"How did the rest of the class react to this?" Jiro asked while violently taking a bit her sandwich.

"There were mixed reactions from everyone, but nothing too drastic. Overall everything was pretty tame, all things considered."

"Well that's good." Midoriya breathed out a heavy sigh. He would be lying if he said that he wasn't more than a bit irritated about this, but in the back of his mind he was expecting that information to get out sooner or later. The one thing that did surprise him though was hearing about what happened to Bakugou. However, after their last interaction his feelings about the blonde haired boy's fate were rather neutral.

A small part of him was a bit sad to hear that the _'explosion'_ quirk user's future as a hero was in jeopardy. But another part of him hoped that this hiccup would be what the boy needed to finally get his head out of his ass once and for all.

But if Midoriya was being completely honest, he wasn't going to hold his breath.

* * *

After classes were done for the day, Midoriya and Kendou took it upon themselves to spend some much needed alone time together to relax. The young couple decided to just stroll around the campus for a bit and simply chat about whatever came to mind. Overall, it was a pretty simple outing. However, Kendou had other plans in mind.

After a few minutes, the orange haired girl led them to a nice secluded bench near the school's greenhouse. She had heard about this place from Shiozaki who just so happened to be a member of the school's gardening club and it was the perfect spot in her opinion. It wasn't too far of a walk away from their dorm while at the same time being far enough to keep away from prying eyes.

"S-so, why did you want to come all the way out here?" The green haired boy gave her a curious look.

Kendou paused while slightly turning away from him. "B-because um…" The girl nervously shifted her shoulders before regaining what was left of her rapidly waning confidence. "I t-thought…."

"Itsuka, what's wrong."

"I thought this would be a g-good place for us to...y'know…"

"Oh?" Midoriya caught on to what the girl was implying. Looking at that slight tinge of blush on her face in silence while processing what he just heard. Somehow he still found it hard to believe that she wanted to do this kind of stuff with him. Or any girl for that matter.

Ever since that painfully embarrassing day in the hospital, the young couple had only kissed a total of four times since then. Each time amounting to nothing more than a quick peck on the lips. Although both of them certainly wanted to go a bit further, neither one really knew how to approach the topic.

Kendou decided to take the lead and locked eyes with him. She knew that out of the two of them Midoriya was the least likely to make the first move. Of course, she didn't mind considering he was just naturally a shy person. And even though she would never in a million years admit it out loud, she kind of enjoyed taking charge.

Time seemed to slow down once they felt the pressure of the other's lips on their own. The act itself sending a warm sensation throughout their muscles and a jolt of electricity up their spines. It may have only lasted a few seconds, which was a major improvement from previous attempts, but they were both more than satisfied at the moment.

"I d-don't think I'll ever get used to that." Midoriya bashfully rubbed the back of his head.

"Me neither." Kendou gave him a smile.

"Did you want to try again?"

"I'm fine for now."

"Oh." The green haired boy replied. Although she could tell that he was slightly let down.

"Unless you wanted to do it again?"

"I-I'm good."

"Cool. There's no point in rushing things, right?"

"Yeah." He agreed.

With that, the two teens made the short journey back to their dorm. Along the way though, they couldn't help but notice the odd looks a few of the people that they passed by were giving them. Midoriya had essentially been the talk of the school after the whole yakuza raid. But even then, the sideways glances that the random onlookers shot the two of them were a bit concerning.

Once the young couple were finally settled in and hanging out with a few of their classmates, everyone went about their evening as they normally would. That is until Tokage suddenly kicked the door open and made a beeline straight for the two of them.

"Everyobody shut the fuck up!"

"Setsuna-"

"Not now!" Tokage cut off what was sure to be another scolding from Shiozaki. "Wonderboy, Itsuka, you two have a lot of fucking nerve don't you?!"

"Tokage-chan, what's wrong?" Shoda asked.

"For real, is something the matter?" Said Kendou.

"I don't know, you tell me."

"Huh?"

"Don't try and act dumb. You know exactly what I'm talking about."

"We really don't."

"Oh yeah? Then what...the fuck...is _this_?!" The green haired girl said while showing them her phone. Revealing a photo of Midoriya and Kendou from their modelling gig with Uwabami a few weeks ago.

_'Damn, I completely forgot about that.'_ Kendou mentally kicked herself.

It was a picture of the two of them posing next to a motorcycle with an artificial autumn background behind them. Midoriya was dressed in a short sleeve, red and white checkered shirt with black jeans and a pair black shoes. While Kendou had on a similar outfit. Except instead of red and white, her shirt was a black and blue long sleeve.

"Oh shit, let me see that!" Tetsutetsu jumped up from his seat on the sofa next to Honenuki to get a better look. The majority of the other students quickly following behind him.

"What is this?" Komori asked while pulling out her own cell phone.

"Wait, where did you find that?" Said Kaminari.

"I was on the way back from the gym and just so happened to be scrolling through my instagram when I saw this pop up on Uwabami's page." Tokage explained, her devilish smile growing wider with each passing second.

"Oh wow." Jiro spoke up. "These are some pretty good photos."

"For real, Kendou you actually look kinda hot." Awase added.

"And exactly what the hell is that supposed to mean?" The orange haired gave him an annoyed scowl.

"Don't change the subject!" Tokage interjected. "How dare you two not tell me about this?"

"W-well…" Midoriya stuttered out before his green haired counterpart placed a hand on his shoulder. The sharp tooth girl giving him a look that nothing conveyed nothing but evil intentions.

"This...this is perfect!"

"What?"

"This is just the kind of advertisement that we need for the cultural festival!" Tokage said with stars in her eyes. "We can use these photos of Wonderboy and put them on flyers all over the school."

"Oh, that's actually a really good idea." Komori perked up at the thought.

"What?"

"I can see it now. Students will be lined up around the corner just to get a piece of him."

"She has a point." Honenuki agreed, much to Midoriya's chagrin.

"Setsuna, you can't just-"

"Oh you're not excused from this either, class rep."

"Huh?"

"We're gonna use the photos of you to create some hype for the beauty pageant. As a matter of fact, we can even use them for promo posters. Nejire told me that she's going to be competing as well and we need every advantage that we can get."

Tokage then pulled Midoriya and Kendou into a vice-grip like hug while giving the both of them an evil glare. If you looked closely, you could actually see the gears turning in her head. _"I hope the both of you realized that you just gave me enough ammo for the rest of the school year. And I promise, I'm going to milk this to the very last drop."_

All the two of them do was let out a nervous gulp at what the girl was planning. Whatever it was, they were absolutely certain that it wasn't going to be pleasant.

* * *

**Author's Notes: A bit of a transition point this time around, this one pretty much setting up a few things in the upcoming chapters. The next few chapters are pretty much going to be straight fluff. It's going to be a bit of a challenge since "fluff" is hard for me to write, so I hope you guys like what's going to happen.**

**1\. So there you have it, Bakugou's fate has been decided. Like I said, I put it up to a vote and this is what you guys wanted. It was actually pretty close though, Option A won by three votes. This won't be like my other fic where I pretty much just deleted Bakugou from the story entirely. We're going to see what becomes of him pretty soon. (Hint: Yuuto was doing that background check for Sen for a reason.)**

**2\. As expected, the rest of the students are now aware of what happened. I already mentioned that a few of the 1-A guys are a bit OOC, but it's just for the sake of the story. And they will definitely be bringing this up very soon. When it comes to Todoroki, Tokoyami and Uraraka, they really didn't stop Hagakure from showing everyone the clip because they all subconsciously wanted it to happen. Don't worry though, they'll make it up to Midoriya in a pretty funny way.**

**3\. Obviously the whole "Hero Students for Hire" thing is going to serve some utility to overall story. Let's just say that a couple of 1-A students are going to take advantage of this opportunity. It will get the ball rolling even faster on the whole "Midoriya Reconciliation" subplot I have going on.**

**4\. Unfortunately I've been hit with a nasty case of writer's block for the cultural festival part of the story. There's going to be a lot happening and trying to tie them all in is pretty hard. But I'm trying to challenge myself with this fic and I'm determined to make it good.**

**Like always, thank you for reading and don't be afraid to drop a review.**


	42. Cultural Festival

Kendou really should give Tokage more credit when it comes how smart the girl is. The _'lizard tail splitter'_ user is one of the best strategists in class along with herself, Midoriya and Honenuki after all. And as it turns out, her tactical awareness in battle translates very well into everyday life.

After the official announcement of the _"Hero Students for Hire"_ event went up on the Cultural Festival's website, things got pretty crazy.

Like everyone predicted, Midoriya was the most sought after individual out of all the boys, much to Kendou's annoyance. Part of her hoped that the fact that they were in a relationship would be enough to deter any would be "buyers", but that dream was quickly crushed when the official requests came flooding in.

In the first two hours alone, two thirds of the requests that came in were specifically for Midoriya himself. Which was surprising considering Tokage had the foresight to dramatically increase the price for his tickets compared to the other available students.

Unsurprisingly, the response was so overwhelming that the principal and faculty made their class put out a very detailed list of things that the "Heroes" were and were not allowed to do. Most of it was more than reasonable and meant to keep things appropriate and in good taste, much to Tokage's own annoyance.

It wasn't a complete madhouse though. And the entire event was actually very well organized, all things considered. The first thing was that Tokage and Komroi established a "one ticket per person" limit. This of course was to keep things relatively fair and give everyone a chance at their desired person.

The next was that the boys had their schedules for the day completely mapped out ahead of time. The event would span the entire time the Cultural Festival was taking place. Which meant that the boys would spend a total of eleven hours bouncing around whoever had the pleasure of securing a spot with them. All they had to do was go to wherever the established meeting spot was and wait for whoever the lucky person was to present them their ticket. This was meant to combat someone getting their time slot taken from them.

On top of that, the vice-rep of class 1-B, along with Komori took it upon themselves to take complete control of the schedules. Which was one of the many monkey wrenches thrown into Kendou's own plan for the day.

The oranged haired teen thought that she was going to be smart and buy a time slot for herself, which was pretty ridiculous considering that Midoriya was _her_ boyfriend after all. But coincidentally, her phone went missing the day the requests opened. Only to reappear in her bedroom later that night. Luckily, Shizoaki was able to land her an hour long spot in the middle of the day around lunch time.

The other issue was that because she had been volunteered for the school's beauty pageant, which was very obviously a part of Tokage's evil plan, there was only a small window of time that she had available.

A part of Kendou was sad about this because Midoriya was more than likely going to miss the pageant entirely. But another part of her was slightly relieved that he wasn't going to witness her embarrass herself on stage by attempting to strut around in a dress and heels.

It was times like these where Kendou had a hard time figuring out whether or not Tokage was her best friend, or her arch nemesis.

* * *

_~0800 Hours~_

The day of Cultural Festival quickly came upon the students of U.A.. And needless to say, Midoriya was on the verge of having a heart attack at any given moment. He had hoped that there wouldn't have been many requests for him for this _"Hero Students for Hire"_ thing. But those hopes were crushed when Tokage handed him a completely filled schedule the night before.

He was willing to go through with this because the money was going to go towards something for the entire class. But that did little to make this nonsense anymore bearable. What was even more confusing was that Kendou was okay with this, even though "tolerating" would have been a better word. But after a very productive conversation between the two of them, he felt a little better about it. Even if a part of him still felt pretty bad for agreeing to do it in the first place.

At the moment, the quirk inheritor was sitting next to a bench near the school cafeteria waiting for his first "appointment" of the day. He had no clue who the person he was meeting was. Mainly because Tokage thought the suspense would be more entertaining for her. And he was practically sweating bullets due to the uncertainty of it all. He could be meeting up with literally anyone. And he was absolutely certain that one of the 1-A students was going to be one of the people that he ran into today. No doubt with the intention of grilling him about the whole Bakugou situation.

_'How the heck did I get roped into this nonsense?'_ The green haired teen thought to himself only moments before a voice caught his attention.

"Hello Midoriya." The individual said with a cherry tone.

The boy turned his head over to see who it was and was pretty surprised at who he standing face-to-face with. Or more specifically, face-to-horns with.

"Tsunotori-san?" He said with a confused look on his face. Taking a moment to notice the black ticket it the girl's hand.

_"Looks like I got first dibs on you today, huh?"_ The American girl smiled at him while speaking in her native English.

_"Wha-"_

_"Setsuna owed me a favor and she may or may not have reserved me a spot with you before the requests started. And before you ask, I already told Itsuka that I was stealing her boyfriend for a little while."_ Tsunotori cut him off to explain.

_"Why?"_

_"Because, there's a ton of stands and events here and I knew that I was going to have trouble understanding everything. And you're a pretty awesome interpreter so you're the perfect person to give me a helping hand."_

_"Oh. That's actually not nearly as bad as I thought."_ Midoriya let out a relieved sight. More than a bit happy that someone he knew was going to be the person he started his day off with.

_"So, are you ready to have some fun?"_

_"Y-yeah, sure…"_

And with that, his day went underway. Thankfully, Tsunotori was true to her word and the two teens spent the majority of the hour going around to random stands and art displays. Midoriya had no problem translating everything for the blonde haired girl, and he actually had a pretty good time. Before he knew it, the hour was over and the horned girl bid him farewell before heading over to the school auditorium. From what she told him, 1-A was putting a putting on a play and she had a pretty big role in it so she needed to get back at soon as possible.

And just like that, Midoriya was off to his next destination.

* * *

_~0900 Hours~_

The next meeting point for Midoriya was a bit surprising, considering the fact that it was right in front of the 1-B dorm of all places. He thought that there would've been some predetermined meeting spots for the students closer to the main campus, but obviously that wasn't the case.

The green haired teen only had to wait for a couple of minutes before the front door to the building opened up. And much to his surprise, it was Jiro of all people who came walking out while holding up a black ticket in her hand.

"K-Kyoka?" He looked to his friend as if she had suddenly grown a second head.

"Before you get any weird ideas, I _didn't_ get this for myself." The purple haired teen flatly said with a slight tinge of pink on her cheeks.

"What?"

"Just come with me, we don't really have a lot of time." She said with a waving motion before walking off into the direction of the main campus.

"O-okay…."

It only took the two hero course students a couple of minutes to make it to the main gate before Midoriya learned the actual reason why Jiro decided to spend the money on a ticket for him.

"Midoriya-kun, Jiro-chan!" Rayet Yamanaka greeted them with a wide grin and a friendly wave. The wheelchair bound girl along with her mother were standing next to the front entrance of the school. Both of them more than happy to be able to spend some time with the girl's former classmates.

"Yamanaka-san? W-what are you guys doing here?" Midoriya wasted no time in asking.

"The school ordered some arrangements from our shop last week for one of the displays and ended up giving us some free passes. Rayet here was hoping to get a chance to hangout with you guys, but then we heard about this whole _"Hero Students for Hire"_ thing." Ayako explained.

"I called Jiro-chan to see if we could get ourselves a ticket, but apparently it was only available for students. But then she offered to pay for us to get an hour with you." Rayet followed up.

"Seriously?" Midoriya looked to Jiro for confirmation.

"I had some cash left over after buying a ticket for myself and thought it'd be a good idea." The purple haired teen nonchalantly shrugged.

"Oh. Wait...who'd you buy the other ticket for?"

Jiro's face immediately flushed after realizing what she just said and immediately tried to deflect. "U-uh...I-I...it doesn't matter! Anyways, I figured that you'd rather spend time with some friends instead of some other random student. So, y-you're welcome."

"And we greatly appreciate it, Jiro-chan!"

"So what did you guys want to do?" Midoriya asked the two members of the Yamanaka clan.

"We were hoping that you could show us around the school for a bit. I've always wanted to see what U.A. was like."

"Sounds like a good idea to me."

"Alright then! Lead the way you two." Ayoko said with cheer.

And so, the group of four spent the next twenty minutes wandering around the campus. Ayako and Rayet couldn't help but be impressed by all that the school had to offer. Aside from a few questions about what their training was like, the conversations were pretty normal. And it gave everyone a chance to catch up after not being in contact with each other for so long.

"...this here is the workshop for the support course students. They make all of our gear and handle repairs to our costumes." Midoriya said as they made their way through the hallway.

"That's so cool!" Rayet said with pure amazement.

"These guys must get a lot of funding, huh? Especially since U.A. is such a top tier school." Ayako asked.

"Yeah, from what I've heard the Detnerat Company just made a huge dona-"

"Muscles!" A very familiar female voice suddenly called out from down the hall, grabbing everyone's attention. The group turned around to see none other than Mei Hatsume barrelling down the hallway with a look in her eye that sent a small shiver down Midoriya's spine.

"Hatsume-san?"

"Here we go…." Jiro immediately deadpanned at the pink haired girl's antics.

"I see you've finally decided to drop by!" The pink haired inventor said as she completely disregarded Midoriya's personal space and came within a few centimeters of his face.

_'So close!'_

"Did she just him _"Muscles"_?" Ayako asked no one in particular.

"I-it's good to see you again Hatsu- whoa!" Midoriya was cut off when the girl suddenly grabbed him by his arm and began dragging him in the direction of the workshop.

"Save the small talk for later. We need to get started on making our new baby!"

"What did she just say?" Rayet looked to Jiro in hopes of an explanation.

"Hatsume calls all of her inventions "babies" for some reason. She's the one in charge of making the gear for me, Izuku and Itsuka."

"Oh."

"Hatsume-san, n-now's not really a good time."

"Nonsense!" The pink haired girl cheered as she flung open the heavy metal doors. It was honestly surprising to see how strong the girl was considering her small stature. "I already finished my baby for the support course competition. So we have plenty of time to get measurements and talk about upgrades."

"Hatsume!" Powerloader suddenly appeared from one of the other rooms. "Midoriya is obviously entertaining guest, no doubt because of this whole _"Hero Students for Hire"_ thing."

"Oh, I didn't even see you guys." The girl finally turned around to look at others. However, the moment she noticed Rayet she immediately changed course and made her way back down the hallway. "Oh wow, that's a pretty neat looking wheelchair. How'd that happen? Does it do anything cool?"

"Hey!" The pro hero immediately chastised the girl. "You can't just ask someone personal information like that. It's rude!"

"It's fine, sir." Rayet waved off. "I was in a car accident when I was a kid and have been in this thing ever since. And no, it doesn't do anything "cool". It's just a regular old wheelchair."

There was a brief moment of silence between the group while Hatsume processed the blonde haired girl's words. And in that moment, an absolutely brilliant idea popped into the young inventor's mind.

"You have to let me make you a new one! I've been wanting to expand my portfolio into something other than hero support items and this is the perfect opportunity!"

"Wait, is that even allowed?" Jiro asked Powerloader with genuine curiosity.

"How about it, Majima-sensei? Can I? Please? Think of it as an extra credit project." Hatsume turned her slightly psychotic gaze towards her teacher.

"Technically speaking, yes. Support course students are allowed to do side projects like this for extra credit. But Hatsume here already has orders that she needs to fill."

"I can handle all of those things by the end of the week. And this will be the perfect opportunity for me to impress our new sponsors." Hatsume waved off. "What do say, wheelchair girl? How would you like to be the first ever recipient of Mei Hatsume's newest line of lifestyle support babies?"

As expected, Rayet couldn't really formulate a response to the sudden proposal. She had just met this strange girl and out of nowhere she was offering to make her a new wheelchair that she didn't really need. She had no issue with the one she had now, and she's had it for so many years that it would honestly feel wrong to get rid of it.

"This is kind of sudden. I-I don't really know what to say."

"Actually, that's not a bad idea." Ayako interjected, surprising everyone else in the room. "I've been looking into buying you a new chair for a while now. And if Hatsume-san's work is good enough for Midoriya-kun and Jiro-chan, then I think we should give it a try."

"Seriously?" Midoriya, Jiro and Powerloader all looked to the blonde haired woman in shock. Obviously unaware of what she was getting her and her daughter into.

"Excellent!" Hatsume cheered before grabbing both Midoriya's arm and Rayet's wheelchair before running off to the other end of the workshop. "We can get started on it right now!"

The next thirty minutes was spent brainstorming new and slightly dangerous ideas for the upgraded wheelchair. Overall, the group had a fun time pitching their own ideas for what could be added into it. However, Powerloader had to step in and shut down Hatsume's plan for adding a rocket booster to the back of it. Besides that, it was a pretty fun time.

* * *

_~1200 Hours~_

Following his hour with Jiro and the Yamanakas was the first of Midoriya's round robins of the day. From ten to twelve o'clock was filled with a slew of meetups ranging from ten to thirty minutes. Even though he did feel slightly uncomfortable more than a few times, he was able to keep himself together and not act like a complete idiot.

The most memorable meetup he had during that two hour block was a twenty minute time slot that was taken up by Nejire Hadou. Which pretty much amounted to the blue haired girl firing off nonstop questions about his quirks and his relationship. Fortunately, he was able to somehow survive the interrogation without any major slip ups.

With that out of the way, Midoriya was currently waiting for his next appointment. The boy was laying down on a bench near the school greenhouse with the goal of resting his body for a bit. All the running around that he had been doing so far today already had him feeling pretty drained. What was worse was that he hadn't had a chance to eat anything since breakfast and his stomach was not happy about that one bit.

"Izuku!" A voice called out to him. One that probably the most relieving to hear so far today. The boy quickly shot up from his position on the bench and looked over to where the sound came from. And much to his relief, Kendou and Shiozaki were the ones approaching him.

"Itsuka, Ibara?"

"Greetings, Izuku." Shizoaki greeted him with a smile.

"Wait...are you guys my next appointment?"

"We sure are." Kendou said while bashfully rubbing the back of her head.

"Oh thank goodness." He said with a relieved sigh.

"Yeah, unfortunately we couldn't get anymore than an hour. And Ibara agreed to go half on the ticket with me." The girl explained. "Sorry I didn't tell you about this before. To be honest, I wanted to surprise you a bit."

"We also had to put it under my name because we were certain than Setsuna wouldn't have allowed Itsuka a full hour with you." Shizoaki added.

"I appreciate this you guys, I could really use a break."

"So how has your day been going so far?" Kendou asked, noticing how tired he looked even though it had barely been a few hours.

"I hope that you haven't been too troubled by any of the other "buyers"." Shizoaki gave him a concerned look.

"It's been...interesting."

"Well, the three of us have the next hour to just relax before we need to head back. So why don't we just walk around a bit and hit the concession stands? You look like you could use a snack."

"Are you certain that you don't want me to leave you two alone? I wouldn't mind, really."

"Nah it's cool, plus you already spent the cash so it wouldn't be fair to you." Kendou reassured her friend.

The orange haired teen was being honest though. Shiozaki getting a ticket for her was a pretty huge favor. And she definitely wouldn't mind the girl tagging along with her and Midoriya. Even though she did want to spend some time alone with him today, it wasn't like they didn't live in the same building.

"I see, well thank you for allowing me to accompany you." The vine haired teen said with a bow.

With that, the trio made their way over to the front of the school where the concession stands were located. It had been Kendou and Shiozaki's first time outside today since they spent most of the morning getting ready for the beauty pageant. So the two of them were more than ready to stretch their legs and see what the festival had to offer.

"Yo, Izuku, Itsuka!" A female voice called out from behind them.

The three students turned around and were met with the sight of Yuuto and Sen making their way over to them. This was the first time they had seen them since the work studies were put on hold. It went without saying, but they certainly weren't expecting this.

"Yuuto, Sen?"

"What are you guys doing here?"

"Sen had the day off and wanted to see what this whole Cultural Festival thing was about." Yuto stated.

"Plus we had a feeling that we'd run into the two of you at some point." Sen followed up with a warm smile.

"Cool."

The blonde haired woman then took the opportunity to acquaint herself with the other member of the trio. "Hello, I don't think we've met before. I'm Sen Heruzo and this is my husband Yuuto."

"Greetings, it's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Ibara Shiozaki." The vine haired teen said with a polite bow. "If I'm not mistaken, you are the hero that Izuku and Itsuka had the pleasure of doing their work study under."

"That's right."

"It feels like we haven't seen you guys in ages. It sucks that the school put the internships on hold for the time being. I was really hoping to get the chance to spar with you guys again. I wanted Sen to teach me more about Baguazhang." Kendou said.

"Yeah well...we're gonna have to put that hold for a little while." The blonde woman responded.

"Why is that?"

"It's not really a good idea to go around fighting when you're pregnant."

…

…

...

"What?!" Midoriya and Kendou's jaws almost hit the floor.

"Yup!"

"Oh my goodness, congratulations!" Shiozaki cheered before grabbing the hands of the hero couple. "This is such a joyous occasion! You two have truly been blessed by the lord and are about to welcome a new life into the world. This is a cause for celebration!" The girl mused as a ray of sunshine fell upon her figure.

_'What a sweet young lady.'_ Sen grinned at the girl's antics.

_'So...does no one else see that light?'_ Yuuto thought, wondering why no one else was commenting on the sudden beam of sunshine.

"How long?" Was the first of many questions that Midoriya had.

"A little over a month."

"Oh man, that's awesome! I hope we get a chance to meet it once it's born." Kendou said while failing to tone down the excitement in her voice.

"Well it's funny that you mentioned that…" Yuuto smirked.

"Huh?"

"We're probably gonna need some babysitters in the future and I think you two would be perfect for the job. So I'd start clearing your schedules now. Think of it as compensation for having to drag you two around for your work study."

The young couple couldn't help but laugh at that. Even though they were certain that the silver haired man was being completely serious.

"We can hammer those details out later. For now, how about the five us hang out for a bit and see what this place has to offer? I heard there's a fried pickle stand somewhere around here and I'm dying to try that out." Sen suggested.

"Yes, that sounds like a wonderful idea." Shiozaki agreed while bringing her hands together in a prayer position.

And so, the rest of the hour was spent getting some much needed food and catching up on how everyone's day had been going so far. The only peculiar thing however was that Midoriya noticed the weird looks that Sen was giving him every now and then. He asked the blonde haired woman if something was bothering her, but she told him that it wasn't anything that he needed to be concerned about for the time being. And that she needed to have a conversation with him as soon as he had the chance.

Whatever it was, he had a feeling that it was something major.

* * *

_~1430 Hours~_

After a few more random meetups, Midoriya found himself standing next to the fence in front of P.E. grounds. This was definitely one of the weirder locations so far today, considering that it was so far away from everything else. But he didn't really think too much of it.

"H-hey, Midoriya." A shaky yet familiar voice called out to him.

"A-ashido-san?" The green haired boy turned his head to see the pink skinned girl from class 1-A steadily making her approach. Her face twisted in a way that showed obvious discomfort.

"I'm not really sure how this whole thing is supposed to work, but I'm just supposed to show this to you right?" She said while holding up her red ticket.

"Y-yeah."

"Oh, cool."

The two of them stood in painfully awkward silence before Ashido worked up the courage to finally say what she wanted to. This was definitely not a side of the girl that Midoriya had seen before. Usually the _'acid'_ quirk user had no trouble speaking her mind.

"Look, I know you have a girlfriend and all so don't think I'm trying anything sleazy. I just wanted to talk to you for a second."

"Okay…"

"I'm pretty sure by now you know that our class found out about the whole...Bakugou thing. And I just wanted to..." She paused before taking in a deep breath. "It's just uh...I'm s-sorry for being such an asshole to you."

"Huh?" Midoriya tilted his head in confusion.

"After Toru showed us that video, I thought about it for a while. And it started to make sense why you never tried making friends with any of us. Especially me and Kirishima since we used to hang around _him_ so much."

"Oh well uh...the only person who should be apologizing is me. Honestly, I could've tried to be a little nicer to everyone." Midoriya responded by scratching his cheek. He definitely wasn't expecting any of this.

"No it's fine, I get it. I'd probably try and avoid anyone who hung around someone like that if I were in your shoes. You probably thought we were just as bad as he was."

"N-no that's not true at all."

"I still can't believe that I let Kirishima conivnce me to go along with that stupid plan of his. We almost got expelled trying to go rescue someone who didn't even deserve it." Ashido said while unknowingly clenching her fist.

It was easy for Midoriya to pick up on how the girl was feeling at the moment. After finding out just what type of person Bakugou was, it was more than understandable for her to feel that way. However, a part of him couldn't just let her mind go into those type of thoughts.

"Ashido-san, for what it's worth I um...I think what you guys did was the right thing to do?" He told her with sincerity in his voice.

"What?" Now it was her turn to give him a confused glare.

"Trying to go save Bakugou. I think what you guys did was the right call."

"How can you even say that? You know just as well as the rest of us that those guys were trying to turn him into a villain. And they were probab-"

"Yes, Bakugou is a terrible person. But that doesn't really mean that he deserved to get kidnapped. To be honest, I think that you guys trying to go rescue him is what any real hero would've done. So you shouldn't be ashamed of it." He cut her off.

"You're just trying to make me feel better."

"No, that's what I really think. If anything, I should've been the one to go since most of it was my fault. But I kept making up excuses and I wasn't expecting Yaoyorozu-san to agree with it anyway."

"Still...I'm sorry for being such a jerk to you. If I had known about everything beforehand, I wouldn't have been such a bitch."

"H-how about we just forget that any of that ever happened? I'm not saying that we need to try and be friends or anything, but I'd rather have the two of us be on somewhat good terms."

"So you're going to forgive me, just like that?" She asked. In all honesty, Ashido was pretty sure that the boy was going to reject her apology. So hearing him say that was definitely a surprise.

"As long as you forgive me for being such a bad person at the start of the year."

"Fine…" The pink skinned teen held out her hand. Midoriya hesitated for a second before returning the gesture. "From this point on, all of that stuff is just water under the bridge, Midori!"

"M-Midori?"

"Yeah, I think it's a pretty adorable nickname. Especially since you have green hair and all." The girl said with a playful giggle.

Although he definitely wasn't a fan of being called something like that, I wasn't the worst nickname that he had been given. So instead of fighting it, he just rolled with it.

"Alright well, that's all that I wanted to talk to you about. You probably have to get going anyway. I'll see you around." Ashido said before turning on her heels and heading off in the opposite direction. She still had about five minutes left in her time slot, but didn't really care about that at this point.

"Yeah...okay…"

* * *

_~1500 Hours~_

To say that this was the appointment that Midoriya was dreading the most would be an understatement. Not because of the fact that he was probably going to be meeting yet another random person. But simply because this was the appointment that was going to cause him to miss the school beauty pageant. Even though he knew that Kendou wasn't too thrilled about herself, he still wanted to be there to support her. But because of this unwanted obligation, he was going to miss the event entirely.

While he was waiting next to the main entrance of the school lamenting over this turn of events, he suddenly felt a hand tap his left shoulder.

Midoriya turned around and was met with the perpetually emotionless face of Yui Kodai. Throughout his entire time in 1-B, he had only interacted with the black haired girl a handful of times. From what he knew about her, she was a nice and respectful person. And she kind of reminded him a bit of Yaoyorozu. But the only weird thing was that he had never heard the girl talk before. For a while he wondered if she might have been mute, but some of his other classmates had confirmed that wasn't the case. Apparently she was just a person of few words.

"K-Kodai-san. I-i-is there something that you need help with?" He nervously asked her as he tried to avert his eyes from the almost lifeless gaze she was giving him.

Instead of verbal response, the black haired girl simply held up a white ticket in front of his face.

"Wait...you b-bought one of those too?"

"Hmm." She simply nodded.

After a brief and awkward silence between the two, Kodai simply pointed her finger and began walking off in that direction. Not even bothering to see if he would follow.

A few minutes later, the two classmates were making their way through a hallway in a part of the school that he had never been to before. Naturally, Kodai hadn't said anything the entire time, but the pace she was walking at probably meant that they were in a hurry. Before he knew it, Midoriya was being ushered through a doorway and up a small flight of stairs. He had no clue where they were and the fact that the place was almost completely dark didn't ease his ever growing nerves.

When the two finally stopped walking, Midoriya looked to his black haired classmate for an explanation. The only thing the girl did was motion her hands in a way that was probably meant to say "wait here", and then walked off. Leaving him with more questions than answers.

* * *

Why on earth was she doing this? Was the question Kendou found herself asking for the thousandth time today as she was being forced in a dress that way too extravagant for her liking. The article of clothing in question was purple highlighted by some teal accents that matched her eyes perfectly. It left her shoulders and upper neck completely exposed.

"Ouch!" Kendou whined as Tokage pulled on some strings, making it even tighter around her midsection. "Does it have to be so damn tight?"

"Hey, it's not my fault that you barely fit into this damn thing." Tokage shot back while tugging on another set of ribbons. "I just don't get it. How can you have big boobs, shoulders and abs? It's kinda not fair."

"I'm going to pretend that you didn't just passive aggressively called me fat." She deadpanned at the girl.

"Setsuna has a point though." Komori said as he walked over to the others with a pair of heels to match the dress. "Your body is pretty impressive."

"I guess you should be lucky that Wonderboy has a thing for buff chicks or you'd be shit outta luck." The _'lizard tail splitter'_ quirk user chuckled.

"I'm still mad at you for him not being able to be here."

"Hey, how was I supposed to know that he'd get so many requests? I thought jacking up the prices for his ticket would've discouraged everybody."

"You put flyers with his face on them in every girl's bathroom in the school." Yanagi retorted with a whisper.

"Irrelevant!" Tokage quickly responded.

"I'm still surprised that Kaminari got so many requests. I didn't know he was so popular."

"He may be kind of an idiot, but he has a cute face. So I was expecting that to happen." The green haired girl said as she made the final adjustment to the dress. "Alright, I'm pretty sure we're good. Now go take a look in the mirror and check yourself out."

Kendou did as she told and walked over to the full size mirror on a nearby wall. The dress didn't look bad on her at all, but she just didn't feel comfortable in it. Wearing something like this way out of her depth, she much preferred tank tops and running shorts. And there was a scowl permanently etched on her face that said she didn't want to be here. "Why am I the one doing this again?"

"Because you have the best chance out of any of us to win. And because Setsuna needed an excuse to get you away from Izuku for the day." Komori answered.

"You guys should be glad that I let you have an hour with him. Don't think that I didn't pick up on your little plan to have Ibara use her name to cover for you."

"I'm still gonna find a way to get back at you for essentially whoring out my boyfriend." Kendou said with a death glare.

"You are more than welcome to try." The green haired girl grinned.

"Well if you ask me, you look absolutely beautiful, Kendou-chan!" The voice of Nejire Hadou said from above. The girls raising their heads to see the blue haired third year floating above them with a smile on her face.

"T-thank you, Hadou-senpai."

"It sucks that Midoriya-kun won't be here though. He was really sad about it when we had our appointment this morning."

"You bought one of those tickets for Izuku too?"

"Of course I did! I wanted him to spill the details about your guy's relationship but he wouldn't budge. He just kept giving me round about answers." The blue haired teen pouted.

Before Kendou had the chance to comment on that, the door to the dressing room opened up revealing their black haired classmate, Yui Kodai. The girl had suddenly vanished a few minutes ago and no one knew why.

"Hey Yui, did you have somewhere that you needed to be?"

"Hmm." The black haired teen nodded while sharing a quick glance with Komori.

After a few more minutes of last second adjustments, Midnight came into the room to tell the contestants to get ready to go on stage. Kendou's heart rate immediately spiked and her throat suddenly went dry. Even though most people would describe her as a very confident person, she couldn't help but feel nervous about the entire thing.

In no time, the orange haired teen found herself walking onto the stage with Hadou and the third year support course student, Bibimi Kenranzaki. Kendou took a moment to scan her eyes over the area to get a good look at the crowd, but her heart almost stopped when she spotted a patch of green hair on the other end of the stage behind the velvet curtains.

Everything around her seemed to vanish for a brief moment when teal eyes met green. For a second, Midoriya looked just as surprised as she was. But let that pass before giving her a thumbs up and a smile. And as it turns out, that million watt grin was enough to wash away whatever anxiety was left in Kenodu's body. She had no idea how or why her boyfriend found a way to make it here. Or why he was hiding behind the curtains away from everyone else. But with him standing there giving her his support she suddenly found a reason to do her best.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the annual U.A. High School Beauty Pageant!" Midnight announced to the crowd while striking a slightly inappropriate pose.

"I know you're all chomping at the bit to get a look at our lovely contestants, so let's not waste anymore of your time. First up, you may have seen her grace your television screens and cell phones in the past few months. This girl is as deadly as she is beautiful. Please give a round of applause for student the representative of the hero course's class 1-B, the lovely Itsuka Kendou!"

* * *

"I still can't believe you managed to get second place. You were amazing out there, Itsuka!" Midoriya said to Kendou with a wide grin. The young couple were hanging out in the girl's room the evening following the festivities while gawking at the silver piece of hardware that she earned a few hours ago.

Even though she didn't get first place, Kendou still managed to wow the crowd with an impressive display of martial arts skills and take home the second place trophy. Of course, Hadou was the overall winner, but having another accolade to add to her collection was something that she was proud of.

The rest of the cultural festival went off without a hitch. Jiro along with her band consisting of Kodai, Rin, Bondo and Kaminari practically blew the crowd away with a rather impressive performance. As it turned out, the Big Three were able to pull some strings and bring the little girl from the raid along with them. Apparently they were tasked with showing her a good time, and the performance was exactly what the little girl needed to raise her spirits.

During one of his appointments, Midoriya ended up crossing paths with Tokoyami who was walking with Ectoplasm and Hound Dog for some reason. Apparently something happened but the raven headed teen promised to tell him about it at a later time.

"Y-yeah." Kendou blushed at her boyfriend's praise. "I'm just as surprised as you are. I mean, there were only three of us competing, but it still feels pretty awesome."

"I'm glad I was able to see it. Your performance was great."

"Speaking of which, I still can't believe that Kinoko and Yui managed to change the schedules without Setsuna knowing. She was pretty pissed at the fact that someone actually managed to pull a fast one on her." The orange haired teen said with a satisfied smirk.

"I wouldn't doubt it."

"Well, now that all of the craziness is out of the way I finally get you all to myself. Honestly, I'm still a bit peeved that you had to spend the day getting passed around like some cheap toy. But I'm definitely gonna find a way to get back at Setsuna for dragging you and all the boys into that."

"W-well, let me know if you need any help." The boy chuckled.

There was a brief moment of silence between the young couple before Kendou took the opportunity to do something that she had been wanting to do for a while. Admittedly, the whole _"Hero Students for Hire"_ thing left a bad taste in her mouth. But now that the two of them were finally alone, she wanted to make up for lost time.

"H-hey Izuku, come over here." She said as she patted the open space on her bed.

"Uh, s-sure." The boy complied, standing up from chair next to her desk and moving towards her.

The moment he sat down, Midoriya was met the Kendou wrapping her arms around him and pulling the two of them down onto the bed. The action being more than enough to redden his face and give the girl a confused look.

"Don't look at me like that." Kendou said with a playful smack on the shoulder. "It's not the first time that the two of us have cuddled. S-so it's not a big deal."

"Y-yeah, I-I guess you're right."

"Y'know, I'm still kind of upset that you spent the day getting hounded by so many girls. You would think that people would have a problem going after a guy who's already taken." Kendou slightly pouted while nudging herself in between his arm shoulder.

"Wait…." Midoriya said as the realization finally hit him. "Itsuka, are you jealous?"

"What?! No, of course not!" She folded her arms while turning away from him to avoid his gaze. "I just thought that people would have more respect is all…"

Despite her words, Midoriya could practically feel the tension radiating off the girl's body. When it comes to situations like these he really didn't know what the appropriate course of action could've been. Instead of fumbling his way through some generic phrase to ease the girl's nerves, Midoriya simply opted to wrap his arms around her waist and pull her in for a hug.

Thankfully, Kendou was able to pick up what he was trying to do and had no problem reciprocating this small act of affection. The two of them chose to stay like that for a little while longer before Kendou decided that they would spend the rest of the evening watching movies and relaxing until it was time to go to bed.

Despite the madness that they both went through, the young couple were more than happy to end their day on a positive note. Eventually they ended up falling asleep in one another's arms before long. But neither were going to complain about finally being able to spend some quality time together away from everyone else.

* * *

**Author's Notes: So yeah, there you have it. To be honest, I'm not too sure how I feel about this chapter. I'm still having trouble with writer's block even as we speak and I'm pretty sure it shows with this update.**

**1\. My main goal going into this was to pretty much have Izuku run into everyone that was relevant in this story and a few others. I'll admit that I had a hard time trying to find a way to fit the whole Gentle and La Brava part of everything into this so I just had Tokoyami deal with them. I'll explain what happened with that later on, and the reveal is going to be pretty funny. Aside from that I think I accomplished the mission on this one.**

**2\. I'd like to think that Tokage has been the MVP of this story so far, but she's been long overdue for some payback. I have a few ideas on how Kendou can get back at her, but I'm interested to see what you guys might want to see happen. There will be a "prank war" going on, but nothing too crazy.**

**3\. Next chapter, our favorite couple are going to have a date night. I'm actually really looking forward to writing this one out so I hope you guys enjoy it.**

**4\. I'm still having trouble coming up with the teams for the joint training session between 1-A and 1-B. The only guarantee that I have now is that it will be another Midoriya vs Honenuki showdown. Kendou's matchup is the one that I'm having the hardest time with as of right now because I don't know who her main foe is going to be. Let me know what matchups you guys want to see in the reviews and I'll do my best to make them happen.**

**As always, thanks for reading and don't be afraid to leave a review.**


	43. Joint Training Arc: Part 1

Darkness. Darkness was all that Midoriya could see around him. No light, no sound, nothing other than his own incorporeal form in the vast void that encompassed the area as far as the eye could see.

_'This again?'_ He thought to himself as he gandered at his own appearance once more. He was shrouded in the familiar darkness as well. But unlike the last time he found himself in this strange plane of existence, this time both of his arms were available to him instead of just one.

"Hmm." A humming sound came from in front of him.

The quirk inheritor immediately looked up and was met with the sight of another person. It was a woman, tall, muscular, with black hair and matching eyes. Midoriya would even go so far as to say she was beautiful. The woman was standing tall with her hands on her hips and sporting a smile. It may have took him a couple of seconds, but he definitely recognized the individual standing before him.

He had seen pictures of her from some of Yagi and Sorahiko's old photos back when he was still training to receive 'One for All'.

"It seems like _our_ connection is still a bit shaky. It's a shame, I was hoping I would get to talk to you properly, Izuku Midoriya." Nana Shimura said with a slightly amused tone. Her voice was strong yet comforting at the same time.

Midoriya couldn't help but wonder what the seventh user of 'One for All' wanted to talk about. But like she just pointed out, his mouth was still as unusable as most of his body.

"No matter, I have a feeling that we'll get the chance to chat very soon. Until then, I look forward to seeing how you'll grow young man." She smiled at him again and pinched the small bit of his cheek that was still exposed. Those were her last words before completely fading into the darkness.

The sound of his alarm clock brought him back to the world of the living. The faint rays of sunlight barely breaking through his bedroom window. As Midoriya swung himself over to the edge of the bed to end the sounds that brought him out of his dream he took notice of the time. It was seven o'clock.

_'Well, I guess I could start my workout a bit early.'_

* * *

Saturday mornings were a special occasion that the students of class U.A. always looked forward to. After a long week of hero lectures, homework and taxing physical training, the group of would be heroes finally had the chance to bask in the peaceful nothingness that came with no responsibilities for the day. There was no class until Monday, and everyone had the opportunity to leave the school and venture out on their own.

However, this particular Saturday was a special occasion. The students of Class 1-B all decided to spend their morning together and enjoy breakfast as a group. To make up for her antics during the Cultural Festival, Tokage was the one tasked with preparing the food for everyone. But fortunately for the green haired girl, she got some much needed help from Yanagi, Tetsutetsu, Awase and Asui.

"Hey, has anyone seen Izuku?" Kendou asked while looking around the common area.

"Come to think of it, I haven't seen him all morning." Honenuki added after finally noticing the absence of the class juggernaut.

"I think he just got back from working out." Said Jiro as she made her way over to the kitchen to fix herself a plate.

"Can someone go get him? It wouldn't feel right eating all of this if everyone isn't here." Shiozaki stated.

"I'll go." Kendou was the one to offer.

"Well hurry up! I spent all morning making these damn waffles and I'd like to start eating before tomorrow!" Tokage half-shouted while wiping the excess flour off of her hands.

Without a second thought, the orange haired teen made her way up to green haired teens room to go retrieve him. Thankfully, Midoriya's room was only on the second floor so she didn't have to travel far.

"Hey, Izuku!" Kendou said as she gave a forceful knocked on the door. "Breakfast is ready and everyone's waiting on you!"

"Izuku?" She knocked a second time after receiving no response.

She waited a few more seconds for an answer, but once again got nothing in return. It wasn't like Midoriya to be late to a class function, let alone not answer his door. She would've tried calling him, but her cellphone was in her room still on the charger so that wasn't an option. Deciding to take a shot in the dark and see if he was alright, Kendou reached for the door handle and made an attempt to turn it. And sure enough it immediately gave way, allowing her access inside.

_'Inko-san was right, he never locks his door.'_ She gave a slight sigh at how irresponsible the guy could be.

"Izuku?" Kendou said once more after fully entering the room and closing the door behind her. Unfortunately, the green haired teen was nowhere in sight.

Before she could formulate another thought as to where the boy could've gone off to, she heard a click from the bathroom door on the other end of the room. What happened next made Kendou lose all available brain function for a solid ten seconds.

It was a very wet and shiny Midoriya….

In literally nothing but a towel around his waist...

With headphones in ears….

Drying his hair off, blissfully unaware of the other person standing less than five meters away from him….

_'Muscles...everywhere…it's like...sexy wet diamond.'_ Kendou thought while taking in the very pleasurable sight before her.

Kendou's entire body locked up after getting a full and unobstructed view of everything that her boyfriend was unknowingly putting on display. And even though her brain had all but shut down upon seeing his almost completely naked body, there were two things that she was absolutely certain of in that moment. One, was that the image had burned itself into her memory for the foreseeable future. And two, she needed to get out of there right now.

However, once Midoriya was done drying his hair was when everything went horribly wrong. It was in that moment that Kendou finally remembered that the boy was only wearing a towel. When the his hands began to reach for the piece of cloth around his waist, she finally decided to make her presence known. It may have only been a muffled gasp/moan, but it was loud enough to gain Midoriya's attention through the wireless headphones that he was wearing.

The two stared at each other with wide eyes. Neither one could believe that this was happening, matching blushes began to fill their faces. The entire room suddenly got really hot and the walls began closing in. There was a brief moment of painfully awkward silence between the young couple before Midoriya finally decided to speak up.

"I-I-Isuka! W-what the hell are you doing in here?!" The boy shouted as he pulled the towel from his head and used it to cover the upper half of his body.

"Izuku, I'm so s-sorry! I-I didn't know you were in the shower!" Kendou shouted back while trying to cover her now reddened face with both hands. Unfortunately for the orange haired teen, she unintentionally activate her quik in both hands for a split second and ended up knocking over the small bookshelf immediately to her right.

Out of instinct, Midoriya quickly lunged over to catch the falling piece of furniture before it could cause any damage and managed to stop it just in time to save Kendou from an unwanted concussion. However, doing so left the two in a very awkward position. That position being Midoiyra holding both arms above Kendou's body with the girl's face buried into his chest.

"Are you okay?" He asked while repositioning the bookshelf back onto the wall.

"Y-yeah." She responded while unintentionally inhaling the boy's scent. Maybe she should invest in some apple and cinnamon scented air freshener?

A fraction of a second later, Midoriya quickly backed away and gave the girl some room. This once again giving Kendou a full view of his body that she didn't know that she needed until just now.

To say that Midoriya's body was a work of art would be an understatement. Every last muscle seemed as though it was made from fine finely sculpted marble. And the fact that he was still wet and glistening from his morning shower did little to ease Kendou's flaring teenage hormones. Kendou did not consider herself a perverted person by any measure. But when faced with such a sight as this, any girl would have a hard time looking away from what she was seeing.

"Damn…" The girl absentmindedly whispered out loud.

"I-Itsuka...can you um...n-not look at me like that?" Midoriya bashfully asked her while averting his eyes.

"Huh?"

"It's j-just that…." He squeaked out while placing his hand over the right side of his abdomen. Oh, that's right. Kendou quickly remembered that this was her first time actually seeing the scarring for herself ever since the camp. Of course he'd be self conscious about something like that.

"Shit, Izuku I'm sorry."

"I know they must be pretty terrible to look at."

"No, I wasn't looking at your scars...w-well I was, but not like that."

"What?"

"It's just that...y-your body is really nice…to look at." She told him while using all available willpower to look away from him.

"R-really?"

"Yes. I'm pretty sure if any of the other girls saw you like this they'd pass out."

"Well, t-thank you for the compliment." He said with a small chuckle. "And um...I t-think that your body is really nice to look at too."

"T-thanks."

"So...did you need something?"

"Yes!" She said, quickly remembering the reason she even came up here in the first place. "Breakfast is ready and everyone is waiting on you."

"Oh man, I completely forgot about that."

"It's fine, no harm done." She waved off.

"Tell everyone I'll be down in a few minutes."

"Yeah, sure." She responded before turning on her heels and making a move for the door. However, against her better judgment, she decided to do something that she prayed no one would find out about. "Uh...but, before I go…"

Before Midoriya had a chance to ask her what she meant, Kendou quickly closed the distance between the two of them and proceed to rub her hands all over his body. The girl quite literally spent all of fifteen seconds mentally recording the feeling of his rock hard muscles on her finger tips. All while avoiding eye contact with the person that she was essentially sexually harassing due to her own embarrassment at doing something so out of character.

"Phew, okay...I got that out of my system." The now blushing teen said with one final pat on the shoulder.

"I-I'm glad I could h-help." An equally blushing Midoriya stuttered out while trying to keep himself from passing out.

"I'll s-see you downstairs."

Needless to say, Midoriya was late for breakfast that morning.

* * *

_~Later that Day~_

Izuku Midoriya was no stranger to the concept of a bad idea. Like that time he goated Todoroki into using his fire during the Sports Festival. Or the time he tried to see if he could run up the side of a building when he could only handle _'Full Cowling'_ at twelve percent. But this was definitely up there on the long list of foolish decisions that he's been rapidly accumulating in his short sixteen years of life.

Midoriya was not an expert on romance by any means. In fact, he would say that it was one of the few topics that he still had absolutely no knowledge in whatsoever. But recently, when it came to his relationship he felt like he wasn't doing as much as he could have been. For the most part, Kendou had taken the front seat on pretty much everything. And for the most part, he's just been going with the flow.

Of course he was glad that the orange haired girl had no problem taking charge when it came to matters such as this. But over the last few days, the thought that his girlfriend would get tired of being the only one to initiate things between the two of them was weighing heavily on his mind.

Which brings us to where we are now. Standing in front of Tokage's bedroom door with a look of other dread plastered on young quirk inheritor's face. Out of everyone he knew, Tokage was probably his best chance at helping make his plan come to fruition. And if he wanted everything to go right, he would need her help. As much as he didn't want to admit it.

Gathering up all of his available courage, Midoriya decided to just take a leap of faith and knock on the girl's door.

"U-uh yeah! Who is it?! What do you want?!" The startled voice of Tokage shouted from inside the room.

"Setsuna, it's Izuku."

"Wonderboy, w-what is it?!"

"I was hoping to talk to you for a second."

"Is it important? I'm...k-kinda busy."

"I kinda n-need your help with something."

"Wait, you need _my_ help?"

"Yeah." He said begrudgingly.

"Uh, shit. Just...give me a second!" She quickly said before going silent.

A couple of seconds later, Tokage finally appeared before him in a rather questionable state. Her face was completely flushed, there was a notable amount of sweat on her forehead and she was slightly panting as if she had just completed running a marathon.

"Wonderboy, what's wrong?" Her voice slightly cracked as she spoke.

"Uh...Setsuna, are you alright?" He asked with much concern in his voice.

"Yeah, never better! Why do you ask?"

"Well, your face is pretty red and you seem out of breath. Were you working out something?"

"Y-yeah...working out, that's e-exactly what I was doing?" Her eyes darted around him for a brief moment as she regained her composure. "Anyways, what's up?"

"I need your help."

"With what?"

"W-well um...I'm trying to plan a date night for me and Itsuka and I was hoping that you could give me a helping hand."

"Seriously?" Her dark green eyes immediately lit up at this development.

"Yeah."

"Well why didn't you just say so? Uh, just give me a second." The green haired teen quickly closed the door in his face. Midoriya heard some shifting around inside of the girl's room along with what sounded like a couple of doors being slammed shut. But before he could think about it any further, Tokage reappeared in front of him with her usual predatory grin.

"Sorry about that. Come on in, just don't sit down on my computer chair." She waved him on while spraying a can of air freshener around the room.

"Why-"

"So loverboy, tell me more about this date night!" She quickly cut him off while obviously deflecting the oncoming question.

* * *

_(Insert Overlydramatic Battle Anime Music Here)_

Under normal circumstances, Kendou would never partake in the childish antics of her other classmates. The orange haired teen was a responsible, well mannered young lady who didn't have time for foolishness. But when it came to a certain green haired vice-rep, something had to be done. Ever since coming to U.A. and moving into the dorms, the girl had been a menace to her and the others. And up until now, no one had been brave in brave enough to take a stand. But that all ends today.

Today was the day that Tokage was going to get what she'd been deserving for along time. And Kendou was going to make sure that she enjoyed every moment of it.

"Uh, Itsuka. What are you doing?" Jiro asked the oranged haired who was currently hiding behind the wall next to the staircase.

"Shh!" Kendou commanded the purple haired teen as she pulled her down to her side.

"What the heck is going on?"

"I'm trying to prank Setsuna."

"Really?" Jiro was more than a bit surprised at hearing something like that coming from her.

"Yeah."

"Huh, I never pegged you for the type to be into that kind of thing."

"Well, she's had it coming for a while now and I think my plan is pretty foolproof."

"Care to fill me in?"

Kendou couldn't help but give an uncharacteristic grin to her boyfriend's best friend. "I put plastic wrap all over the outside of her door and I'm gonna get her to walk into it."

"That's it?" Jiro immediately deadpanned.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well, it seems like kind of a lame prank."

"W-well, it was kind of a spur of the moment thing and it was the only one I could think of on short notice."

"How do you know she's even in there?" The purple haired teen inquired.

"Saturdays are her lazy day and she usually spends most of her time locked up in her room catching up on yaoi manga."

"I'm...not even gonna ask you why you know something like that…."

"Whatever…. Anyways, once I get her to come out of her room all she's gonna get is a face full of plastic wrap. And I'm gonna get the whole thing on video." Kendo smirked while pulling out her cellphone.

"Eh, I have nothing better to do. Might as well see if this works." The purple haired teen said with an aloof shrug.

"That's the spirit!"

* * *

Fist: Hey, I know you're probably busy but I need you to come down stairs and help me out with something.

T-Rex: What is it?

First: I'll tell you when you come down.

T-Rex: Sure. Be there in a minute.

Fist: Thanks

* * *

"Success!" Kendou quietly pumped her fist into the air.

As if on cue, the girls heard the sound of Tokage's bedroom door open up and all they had to do was wait for the inevitable. And sure enough, the next thing they heard next was the sweet sound of victory.

***Bang!*** The sound of a body crashing into the floor was all they heard, followed by a very loud groan.

"Oh shit! Wonderboy, are you okay?" Tokage suddenly yelled out in concern.

Wait a second. That's not what Kendou was expecting to hear.

Almost immediately, the girl poked her head out from around the corner only to see two things. One, was Tokage standing next to her opened door with a look of pure shock on her face. The other, was a mop of green hair laid on the ground surrounded by plastic wrap.

"Ugh, what the hell?" Midoriya groaned out as he tried to pick himself up off the floor.

"Izuku!" Kendou shouted while quickly running to his side.

"Oh man, are you okay?" An equally concerned Jiro followed up.

"What...the fuck...is going on?" Tokage looked to the two girls with a scowl.

"Oh man, Izuku I'm so sorry. That was meant to be for Setsuna!"

"Huh?"

"It's fine." The boy waved off.

"Someone wanna fill me in?" Tokage repeated.

"Itsuka was trying to pull a prank on you, but I guess it backfired." Jiro explained while trying to suppress her own laughter.

"Oh, is that so?"

"You're not hurt are you?" Kendou asked her still shrink-wrapped boyfriend.

"No, I'm fine."

"Thank goodness."

"Well, well, well…" Tokage began with a devious grin. "Little miss class rep thought she could pull a fast one me, huh?"

All Kendou could do was rubbed the back of her and give an innocent chuckle.

"I must say, I didn't know you had it in you. Too bad Wonderboy here was the first one to walk out, or else you might have gotten me."

"Speaking of which, what were you doing in her room anyway?" Jiro inquired.

A slight tinge of pink appeared on the boy's cheeks as he tried to find a good enough explanation. "O-oh uh, well…"

"Wonderboy was giving me some advice on how to ask out Todoroki." Tokage immediately answered the girl's question.

"Huh?" The three teens said simultaneously.

"What?"

"I didn't know you were into him like that." Said a now confused Kendou.

"Of course I am! He's hot, has that mysterious bad boy vibe, hot and from what I can tell, he has a nice body."

"Why would you ask Izuku for help?"

"Because, the two of them are best bros. And since Todoroki has the emotional capacity of stale bread, I need to work on my plan of attack."

"Oh."

"But back to matter at hand." The green haired girl said with a sharp look towards Kendou. "Unless you want to start an all out prank war, I suggest you not try something like that again. I doubt you could keep up with me anyway."

"And what is that supposed to mean?" The _'big fist'_ user quirked an annoyed eyebrow at her.

"You're just not cut out for that kind of thing. Plus, I don't want to make you look like a total fool in front of your boy toy." She said with a smirk.

"Please, if anyone's gonna look like a fool, it's you."

"Oh? That sounds like a challenge."

"And what if it is?"

"Listen Red, you don't want this problem."

"Those sound like the words of a coward."

"Alright, but don't say I didn't warn you." Tokage cooed with an ever growing grin. "If a prank war is what you want, then a prank war is what you're gonna get!"

"Fine." Kendou shot back.

For some reason, Midoriya and Jiro could see some strange, dark aura surrounding the two of them. Both girls had looks of pure determination on their faces and they had a really bad feeling that they weren't going to like the outcome of this.

_'What the hell is going on?'_

"Oh, I'm so gonna enjoy this!" Tokage cheered as she clasped her hands together in pure delight.

"Alright you two. How about we just forget this entire thing ever happened? No need to let things get out of hand. It was just a harmless joke." Midoriya said as he put himself in between the two girls in hopes of stopping things from escalating further.

"Wonderboy's right, I'm not in the mood for debauchery today anyway. But mark my words Red, you're gonna regret the day that you ever challenged me."

"We'll see about that." Kendou crossed her arms in defiance.

_'What is this, an anime or something?'_ The two spectators deadpanned.

"Oh yeah, Kyoka. You got a minute? There's something that I need your help with." Tokage asked the purple haired teen.

"I'm not gonna be a part of this stupid prank war." Jiro said with a scowl.

"Oh don't worry, this is about something else."

"Ugh...sure."

Deciding that now was a good time to take her leave, Kendou grabbed Midoriya's hand and began leading him down the hallway. "Hmph, come on Izuku. The two of us need to start strategizing on how we're gonna take down little miss dinosaur lover."

"What?! Why do you need my help?"

"Because, you're my boyfriend and it's your duty to assist me in matters such as these."

"That makes absolutely no sense!"

The young couple then disappeared around the corner presumably to come up with their game plan for the upcoming battle. Tokage couldn't help but feel a tingle in her spine at the chance to cut loose and do some damage. Unbeknownst to everyone else, the green haired girl already had more than a few pranks in mind and just needed an excuse to unleash hell on someone. And there was no better person than Kendou herself.

"So...what did you want to talk about?" Jiro brought the girl out of her scheming mind.

"Oh yeah, are you busy this Friday?"

"No."

"Excellent!"

* * *

Katsuki Bakugou was not a happy camper.

The last few weeks for the blonde haired teengaer have been some of the worst in his entire life. Not only did he get kicked out of the U.A. hero course, but his father and the old hag decided to completely pull him out of school altogether. As expected, his initial reaction to this decision was to fight against it and tell those idiots that he was going to regain his rightful place in no time. But after a very long and annoying conversation, he reluctantly gave into their demands.

Bakugou wasn't stupid, he knew that if he stayed at U.A. he would've had a hard time getting back to where he rightfully belonged. And because the rat and the rest of the faculty decided that useless Deku was now their favorite student, it would only have made it that much more annoying. But this is Katsuki Bakugou. He wasn't about to let a little hiccup like this stop him from achieving his dream and becoming the number one hero. And he sure as hell wasn't about to let that useless nerd have this victory over him. So what if he was no longer a student at the best hero school in the country? It was only a minor deviation from his ultimate goal. Any school in the country would be lucky to have someone of his caliber in their ranks.

Shitty Deku may have gotten what he wanted and persuaded U.A. to give him the boot. But this was certainly not the last that the green haired wimp would see of him. Sooner or later the two would cross paths again. And when they did, he was going to make sure that he knocked that loser off his high horse and showed him who the real top dog is.

Bakugou was brought out of his ruminations when the door to the horribly decorated office that him and his parents were sitting in finally opened up and caught his attention. In walked some short, blonde haired bimbo in some dreary looking sky blue pantsuit. In the few, quick seconds it took for her to make her way over to the desk he noticed the look that the woman gave him. He recognized that kind of look. It was the look of someone who doubted him, yet another person that he would have to assert his dominance over.

"Greetings, I'm Sen Heruzo. I'm the first year heroics teacher here at Shiketsu High School." The woman said as she finally took her seat in front of the three members of the Bakugou family.

"It's a pleasure to meet you ma'am." Mitsuki and Masaru said simultaneously with a polite bow. Bakugou hated seeing his dad and the old hag behave in such a way. He could practically smell the uneasiness pouring out of the two of them.

"Bakugou-san, forgive my rudeness but let's just skip the pleasantries and get down to business. The reason the three of you are here today is because we require all possible hero course students to conduct an interview/evaluation before admitting them into our class." The blond haired woman said as she threw down a rather thick manilla folder onto the desk in front of her.

"I had the chance to go over your son's files. And to say that I was unimpressed would be an understatement."

"I'm sorry?" Mitsuki said in a confused tone.

"Katsuki Bakugou, age sixteen, quirk labeled as "Explosive Sweat". Has the ability to cause explosions of varying sizes by igniting the nitroglycerin-like sweat that is exuded from his palms." Sen began reading off the top sheet of paper. "He no doubt has a very powerful and versatile quirk, and his grades are nothing short of spectacular. Based on that information alone, your son would be a shoe-in for any hero school in the country."

"Yes, our Katsuki is a very talented young man." Masaru gave her a weak grin.

"However…." Sen interjected without missing a beat. "That information barely scratches the surface when it comes to your son."

"What do you mean?"

"I think we all know the answer to that." The pro hero paused for a brief moment. "To put it simply, young Bakugou here is not fit to be a hero in any capacity. The fact that he made is far as he did in U.A. is nothing short of a miracle."

"What did you just say?!" Bakugou almost shouted after hearing the woman's words. But Mitsuki was quick to put her hands on the boy's shoulder in an attempt to keep him in line.

"Calm down!"

_'Yup, just as bad I thought.'_ Sen thought to herself before continuing.

"What I have here are documents pertaining to your son that both the school and an associate of mine were gracious enough to put together for me. They contain reports from U.A.'s guidance counselor, teachers and principal, along with testimonies from multiple other sources including Best Jeanist himself. And might I say, they paint quite the interesting picture."

Masaru and Mitsuki couldn't help the cold sweat that quickly formed on the backs of their necks.

"Rude, disrespectful, arrogant, highly aggressive and volatile personality. Has the disposition of a rabid animal. Deep psychological issues that have never been properly addressed. Behavioral disorders that are borderline sociopathic. Multiple cases of bullying. History of discrimation and prejudice against others based on quirk status. And the list goes on and on…."

"I t-thought those were supposed to be private." A now very nervous Masaru said in a shaky tone.

"According to law, when attempting to transfer hero schools all documents pertaining to the student's academic and performance records are subject to review. Even the ones from as early as middle school." Sen explained in a matter of fact tone.

"Heruzo-san, I know all of this may look bad but, but I can assure you that Katsuki here is a wonderful child."

"Ma'am, please don't insult my intelligence. As he is now, your son is far from _"wonderful"_."

That sentence was enough to ignite the flame that Bakugou's already waning patience."How dare you-"

"Sit down!"

"Case in point." The blonde haired woman smirked. "If you want my honest opinion, your son is unfit for the world of heroics. Although he does have potential as far as physicality and academics, other areas leave much to be desired. I'm assuming that the reason it took U.A. this long to officially give him the boot is because with how dangerous his quirk is coupled with his extremely volatile personality, they were worried about him possibly becoming a villain if he were to ever get expelled."

"My son would never stoop so low." Mitsuki crossed her arms in defiance after hearing such utter nonsense.

"But he already has." The woman retorted. "I'm sure by now all of you are aware of a one...Izuku Midoriya."

"Yes...we are."

"Not only did your son spend years tormenting that boy simply because he didn't have a quirk. Very recently he tried to assault him on school grounds. Of course, the former is only speculation due to his middle records being absolutely spotless. Which by itself is inconsistent with his behavioral history." Sen then turned her gaze over the youngest Bakugou family member. "Young Bakugou, are you aware of what's currently going with Aldera middle school at the moment."

"No...I'm not." The _'explosion'_ quirk user said through gritted teeth as tried to keep his temper under control.

"That institution has been blacklisted from all hero schools in Japan and is currently under investigation due to multiple cases of negligence and bribery by the staff. In many of these instances, it has been recently uncovered that teachers were receiving cash under the table to "overlook" less than favorable acts of hopeful hero prospects. It stands to reason that your son was no different."

That little tidbit of information was certainly a shock for the ashen blonde boy. He already knew that Aldera was a shithole. But if what this woman was saying was true, then it only confirmed what he already knew. In addition to all of that, it only made him look worse.

"So let's look at things from my perspective as an educator to the future heroes of our country. Here we have your son, a brilliant young man who possess a highly dangerous ability with a rich history of discriminatory and violent behavior towards others who recently was kicked out of the top hero school in the country. Who in an entire semester has shown no change in that behavior. And according to the footage that I received from the altercation between him and Midoriya, showed absolutely no remorse for tormenting another student for years. Objectively speaking, do you think that I should allow someone like that into the hero course at our school?"

"We get your point." Bakugou stated.

"I'm sure you do." Sen gave him an unimpressed glare.

"Please, Heruzo-san. We know that our son may seem like a bad person, but deep down he really wants to be a hero for the right reasons." Masaru pleaded to the woman.

"Which brings me to my next question." Sen said as she directed her gaze back towards the boy. "Why exactly do you want to be a hero young man? And feel free to be honest as possible."

The _'explosion'_ quirk user paused for a moment as he thought about his response. Anyone who knew Bakugou already knew what the answer to that was. He wanted to be the best, plain and simple. But in situations like these, it was best to tell people what they wanted to hear. So he decided to just go with the usual bullshit that others would say in times like this.

"Well, I'm waiting for your answer." The _'cyclone'_ quirk user impatiently tapped her foot while folding her arms.

"Because I want to help people." He said through gritted teeth.

"See, I would believe you...if it wasn't for this." She then pulled out a handwritten piece of paper titled: **Why I want to be a hero**. It was an essay that the students of U.A. were given at the start of the school year by their teachers.

"To keep it simple, your only motivation for becoming a hero is because you want to _"Be the best"_. Nothing more, nothing less."

"And what's wrong with that?"

"It's shallow."

"Ma'am I'm sorry to interrupt, but what is the point to all of this? If I didn't know any better, I'd say that your mind was already made up about whether or not our son will be in your class or not." Mitsuki was quick to interject.

"The point to all of this is that I want you and your son to understand how precarious of a situation you are in when it comes to his future. Although the principal has already agreed to let him attend our school, I have final say on whether or not he will be admitted into the hero course. And judging by how he has been acting and silently fuming in his seat ever since I walked into this room, I'm sure you can guess what my decision ought to be."

"Well w-what can he do to show you that he deserves to be in your class?" Mitsuki asked. She was far from an idiot when it comes to these types of things, obviously there was some sort of catch.

"I'm glad you asked!" Sen gave a victorious smile, one that made Bakugou's blood boil. "There are three conditions that your son has to meet before he can even think about becoming one of my students."

"What are they?"

"First is that your son will be in our general education course for the time being." She started.

"Alright." The Bakugou matriarch nodded. Something like that was to be expected, but it certainly wasn't the end of the world.

"Second, young Bakugou here will be required to attend anger management classes three times a week from our school's guidance department. They will me give weekly updates on whatever progress he does or does not make. And rest assured, they will spare no detail."

"He accepts." Mitsuki said without missing a beat.

"And the third?" Masaru inquired.

"Finally, your son will have to volunteer at a local orphanage not too far away from our school for a minimum of ten hours every weekend."

"What?" Bakugou look at the woman in confusion. Just what the hell was she trying to pull?

"This orphanage specifically caters to quirkless children that have been abandoned or put into foster care for one reason or another. I believe it will serve as a very eye opening experience for your son, considering his..._views_ on that particular subject. And of course, the staff will be giving me updates on how you do over there."

"How long will he have to do this for?"

"Until I say otherwise." Sen simply stated. "Needless to say, these conditions are non-negotiable. If you don't like them, you are more than welcome to walk out that door and try your luck at another school."

Mitsuki and Masaru looked to one another for a moment. They had already tried their luck at Ketsubutsu. But because one of the faculty members there was apparently friends with their son's former homeroom teacher, they denied their son's application almost immediately. The fact that Shiketsu was even giving them this chance was a miracle in of itself.

"He accepts."

"I'd prefer to hear it from him." Sen responded. The blonde haired woman then looked to the boy and couldn't help but feel a slight tinge of satisfaction at seeing him in such a position.

"Fine, I'll do it." Bakugou growled out while trying to hold his nerve.

"Good." The _'cyclone'_ quirk user said with a victorious grin. "With any luck, we _might_ make an actual hero out of you one day. If not, I'm sure that there are many other careers options that you'd do well in."

"Is that all, Heruzo-san?" Mistuki asked the woman, hoping to end this interview as soon as possible to avoid any potential slip ups by her son.

"Yes, but before you go allow me to add one more tidbit of information."

"What is it?"

"Unlike U.A., we don't give out freebies here at Shiketsu. Your son will only have this one chance. All it takes is one slip up and I will not hesitate to expel him from our school. And I don't need to tell you how damaging it would be for his future to get kicked out of not one, but two different hero schools."

"Yes, we understand." The two adults nodded.

"Good." Sen smiled. "I hope you all have a wonderful day."

And with that, Sen stood up from her seat and began making her way to the door. However, right before she crossed the threshold into the hallway, she took a second to look back at him one more time.

"Oh, and young Bakugou."

"What is it?"

"You should make sure to thank Izuku if you ever run into him again. If it wasn't for him, you would never have gotten this opportunity. I'll be sure to tell him you said hello the next he has dinner at my house."

Before another word could be uttered, the blonde haired woman shut the door behind her. Leaving Bakugou in a state of confusion and anger that he didn't even know was possible.

* * *

**Author's Notes: Greetings readers. I know I said that Midoriya and Kendou were going to have another date night this chapter, but I changed my mind. I'm going to save that outing for after the Joint Training is over with. Especially since it will take some time to get everything in order.**

**1\. So there you have it, Bakugou may or may not get another chance to become a hero depending on if he gets his act together. I didn't feel like writing out the conversation between Sen and Midoriya, but essentially it was just him telling her that if she thinks she can get him in line then she should go for it. Izuku's done with Bakugou and his attitude so it doesn't make a difference to him. I actually never planned on this being part of the story, but things fell into place pretty well. Of course with how much potential Bakugou has, he'd get scooped up by another school. But from everything we know about Shiketsu, it's a pretty no nonsense type of place. So he's going to have to actually earn his spot.**

**2\. Like I said before, Bakugou and Midoriya are going to have another confrontation before the story is over. I'm debating on when exactly that encounter will take place. There's gonna be a significant time skip towards the end of the story, and as of right now I have it taking place during that time. It won't be anything major, it will pretty much just be a case of the two of them crossing paths.**

**3\. The prank war is officially on. And rest assured, there will be some collateral damage. How much, is still up for debate. But I have some pretty interesting pranks cooked up.**

**4\. Obviously that encounter in the "OfA Avatar State" with Nana Shimura was foreshadowing of something that's going to happen pretty soon. I'll let you guys speculate on what that is.**

**Like always, thanks for reading and don't be afraid to drop a review. I'm going to be busy for the next couple of weeks, so I can't guarantee when the next update is going to be. But rest assured that I have no intentions of abandoning this story.**


	44. Joint Training Arc: Part 2

"Alright, I got the popcorn and drinks." Midoriya announced as he closed the door to Kendou's room behind him.

The young couple finished up all of their homework and studying rather early, so they decided to have another impromptu movie night. There wasn't much to do on a weekday since they couldn't leave campus. But neither was one going to complain about it.

"Sweet!" Kendou smiled warmly at her boyfriend.

"So, what are we watching tonight?" He inquired while setting the bowl of popcorn down on a nearby nightstand.

"Well, we've pretty much watched nothing but bad movies lately. So tonight I thought we'd actually watch a good one."

"What is it?"

"It's one that my dad told me about. Apparently, it's about a hero from the time before quirks."

"What's it called?"

_"Captain America: The Winter Soldier."_ She said after reading the English title on the television screen.

"Well, at least the title sound cool."

"Yeah." The orange haired teen agreed as she patted the spot next to her on the bed. Midoriya quickly complied and took up the open space. Kendou wasted no time in throwing her karate themed comforter over the two of them and leaning on the boy's shoulder as the opening credits began to roll.

Overall, the movie was actually pretty amazing. Although Kendou wished that she knew there was a prequel movie before this one, she still understood everything pretty well. However, he only issue came from a few obvious similarities she noticed early on. A few similarities that she absolutely had to address.

"Izuku…be honest with me." She shot a deadpan expression towards her boyfriend. "Have you seen this movie before?"

"No." He quickly told her with a slight blush. But despite his honest reply, the glare that she was giving told him that she didn't believe a single word of it. "Itsuka, I promise you…I have never seen this movie before in my life."

"Izuku…"

"I'm serious."

"Izuku…"

"I'm telling you the truth!"

"Izuku, literally both of your hero costumes are in the movie. I'm pretty sure if you grow your hair out again you'd look exactly like the Bucky Barnes. I mean, you have the half-mask and everything. And the fact that they have strength enhancement quirks isn't helping your case." For added effect, Kendou decided to zoom in on the picture of the main character.

"W-well, technically it's not a quirk-"

"Semantics." She folded her arms in annoyance.

"If anything, Hatsume-san is the one you should be asking. She's the one in charge of my costume, remember? Maybe she's just a fan of these movies."

"Why do I have the feeling that she might have done the same thing with my shields?"

"Maybe she did."

"Whatever." The girl let out an amused sigh. "It's late anyway, we should probably hurry up and go to bed."

"Yeah, I'll see you in the morning." The boy agreed before standing up and stretching out his limbs. But, just as he began making his way to the door, he felt a slight pull from the hem of his tank top.

"A-actually…" Kendou started as slight tinge of pink formed on her cheeks. "I was wondering if you wouldn't mind staying for the night. Y'know, o-only if you want to."

Now it was Midoriya's turn to blush at the girl's sudden proposal.

"A-are you sure?"

"Yeah." She nodded while trying to keep her nerve. "I a-actually got some pretty good rest last time. I like sleeping with you."

…

…

…

Both of their faces lit up like a set of Christmas ornaments after processing the girl's words.

Kendou was the first to speak up and tried to remedy what could very well lead to a misunderstanding between the two of them. "I-I-I didn't m-mean it like-" She frantically waved her arms in front of her face.

"I-it's fine, I u-understood...w-w-what you meant." Midoriya stuttered out while averting his eyes.

After a brief pause, the young couple couldn't help but let out a few laughs at their own awkwardness. The two of them had finally gotten passed that weird "starting" phase of their relationship, so moments like these weren't too common anymore. There were still boundaries that neither one was ready to cross just yet, but they were making progress.

A few minutes passed before the two finally laid down in bed to call it a night. Kendou would be lying if she said that she didn't enjoy the warmth that Midoriya's body seemed to constantly put out. And the scent of apples and cinnamon was definitely a nice fragrance to fall asleep to. In practically no time, the two were fast asleep.

And like she predicted, Kendou had a pretty good night's rest.

* * *

The next morning, the two teens begrudgingly woke up to the pleasant sound of Kendou's alarm clock going off. Neither one wanted to get up, but the risk of being late to class just to sleep in a bit longer was not one that the young couple wanted to take.

"I'll see you in class." A still groggy Midoriya said to his girlfriend with a quick yawn.

"Yeah, you too." Kendou responded before leaning in and giving the boy a quick peck on the lips. The two shared one final hug before the green haired boy took his leave to head back to his own room.

The ginger teen wasted no time and went straight into her bathroom to clean up and get ready for the day. As Kendou lazily walked up to the sink to brush her teeth, she took the time to turn up her morning playlist. Like she had done a thousand times before, the girl quickly picked up her toothbrush and bottle of green apple flavored toothpaste, applied the gel to the bristles, swiftly ran it under the water and immediately began her routine.

Kendou only made it about two seconds before the sensation of her mouth and nose catching on fire forced her spit the brush out.

"Ugh...What the hell?!" She looked down at the bottle of toothpaste while fanning her face off. It took a few seconds, but she was finally able to notice that the color of its contents was not the same as usual. Instead of its normal vibrant green color, the toothpaste was more pale and yellowish. The girl decided to take a quick whiff of the bottle and her suspicions were confirmed when the smell hit her nostrils.

_'Wasabi paste?'_ She thought to herself. Before she could even begin to wonder what exactly was going on, her mind had already connected the dots. Only one person could've done something as devious as this.

_'Damn you Setsuna!'_

(Tokage 1 - 0 Kendou)

* * *

Tokage was feeling pretty damn proud of herself right about now. Not only did she successfully sneak her way into Kendou's room in the middle of the night and switch out her toothpaste with some extra-strength wasabi paste. She managed to snap a rather scandalous photo of her best friend with her boyfriend cuddling together in bed like a pair of old lovers. The green haired teen was definitely a bit jealous that the girl had free access to draping herself over a hot guy any time she wanted. But the added bonus of her prank was more than enough to soothe her envy.

_'Seriously, why do people never lock their windows at night?'_ Tokage thought to herself with a victorious smirk as she made her way out of the building to go on her morning run. _'Oh well, I need to figure out how I'm gonna use this photo. Although, I probably should've tried to get a peek at Wonderboy's abs while I was in there.'_

In no time, the green haired teen was at the main entrance of the building next to the communal shoe rack. Tokage was a bit curious as to what Kendou could've been cooking up in their prank war. No doubt the girl had already gotten her wake up call this morning. So she was more than likely going to respond quickly.

In truth, Tokage wasn't the least bit worried. Deep down in her heart, she knew that she had this in the bag. By her estimate, it would only be a couple of days before Kendou admitted defeat. But until then, she was going to make sure to milk this for all it was worth.

The girl had to stop herself from cackling out loud like madwoman as she grabbed her running shoes from the shoe rack. She honestly hated running, especially in the cold weather. But there was no in hell that she was about to let herself get out of shape and let the other girls show her up.

***Squish***

Tokage immediately stopped after slipping on her shoe and feeling a slimy substance seep its way into her sock. Very slowly, she pulled her foot out and looked down to see a thick, blue goop covering her toes and heel.

The girl wasted no time inspecting the footwear and was shocked when she saw that the entire inside of her shoes were coated in fucking shaving gel of all things.

_'Oh, it's on now!'_ Tokage though with a devious smirk.

(Tokage 1 - 1 Kendou)

* * *

"I'm actually looking forward to this training session that we're having with 1-A tomorrow." Kendou stated to the group in between bites.

Following their morning escapades, Kendou and Tokage agreed on a truce during school hours. Mainly because neither one wanted to deal with any of the additional annoyance during class. The two students were seated along with Jiro, Shiozaki and Asui.

"Indeed, it's been a while since we've done anything with both classes. I wonder how much all of them have improved." Shiozaki pondered out loud.

"Knowing Aizawa-sensei, he's probably been working them to the bone ever since the provisional license exam. _"It would be irrational to not sharpen your skills after such as dramatic failure."_, is probably what he's been telling them." Said Jiro while she imitated the night time hero's voice. Making sure to put extra emphasis on the scraggly groan.

"Sounds about right."

"Oh yeah, that reminds me, gero." Asui suddenly said. "There's something I wanted to ask either of you two." She directed her gaze towards Kendou and Jiro.

"Okay?"

"What is it?" Kendou asked while taking a sip of her afternoon coffee.

"Do either of you know why Midoriya-chan never uses knives, gero?"

"Huh?" Both Kendou and Jiro said simultaneously before glancing at one another.

More than a bit intrigued at where she was going with this, Tokage was the next to speak up. "What are you talking about, Tsu?"

"I first noticed it a little while after moving into the dorms. I didn't think much of it until now, but recently it's been bothering me. He never uses them when eating, gero." The frog girl further proved her point by pointing over to a table down the aisle from them.

The rest of their group turned their gaze over to the table where Midoriya, Tetsutetsu, Honenuki, Rin and Fukidashi were sitting. This just so happened to be one of the few days that the boy wasn't having katsudon for lunch. Instead, he opted for a simple plate of steak and rice. They all observed him for a minute and watched as he broke off small pieces of meat with his fork. It was certainly odd, especially when a knife would've been much easier to use.

"Huh, I guess she's right."

"I've never noticed that before."

"So do either of you know why he does that, gero?" Asui turned the focus back onto Kendou and Jiro.

Of course, the two of them knew exactly why the boy did it. But neither really wanted to say so out loud. In truth, the whole "No Sharp Objects" policy had been lifted for Midoriya a while ago. However, he had gotten so used to not using knives in that time that it just became a habit by that point.

Kendou decided to just play dumb and give a confused shrug as her response.

"Why are you even asking the two of us?" Jiro inquired, hoping to quickly change the subject.

"Well, Itsuka-chan is his girlfriend and you're his best friend. So if anyone knew it had to be the two of you, gero." The frog girl blunted stated.

"That does make sense." Shiozaki agreed.

"Whatever." The purple haired slightly blushed while folding her arms.

Never one to miss out on an opportunity to have a bit of fun at someone else's expense, Tokage was quick follow up. "She has a point. Besides Itsuka, you probably know him the best out of everyone. Honestly, I thought you might have been into each other when we all started hanging out." The _'lizard tail splitter'_ user said in a teasing tone.

"Well, Midoriya-chan has always been nicer to Kyoka-chan compared to everyone else."

"W-what? No he hasn't." Jiro's blush slightly intensified.

"Yes he has, gero. Do you remember the first day of class?"

* * *

_~First Day of Class~_

_The students of the newly assembled class 1-A were huddled together at the school's fitness track after being rushed out by the man who claimed to be their homeroom teacher. Once everyone was formed up, Aizawa wasted no time in getting right down to business and explaining what they were going to be doing. In short, they were simply going to do the standard school fitness tests. The announcement of this causing a bit of commotion before Aizawa forced everyone into silence._

_"You with the blonde hair, you seem to be the most energetic out of everyone here. So you'll be first up." The scraggly man groaned out as he tossed the ashen blonde a white softball. "Throw that ball as far as you can without leaving the circle. You can use your quirk however you see fit."_

_"Now we're talkin'!" The feral looking teen grinned as he strutted his way over to the designated spot. The boy bounced the ball in is hand of few times before winding his arm back and gearing up for his throw._

_Barely a second before he launched the ball, Jiro felt something cover both of her ears. The purple haired teen didn't get a chance to do anything about it before she was slightly disoriented by the sound of an explosion coming from what appeared to be the other student's quirk._

_'Geez...what the hell kind of quirk does that guy have?' She wondered as the sudden pressure was immediately lifted off of her ears._

_"705.2 meters, not bad." Aizawa stated while seeming completely unimpressed by this._

_While the other students commented on how insane of a distance that was, Jiro turned around to see who decided to lend her a helping hand. Much to her own surprise, the girl saw that it was none other than her former middle school classmate, Izuku Midoriya. She only ever spoke to the guy a handful of times. And she was no doubt surprised to see him of all people at the entrance exam, let alone when she first walked into the classroom that morning. However, she hadn't gotten the chance to talk to him before their entire group was rushed out to the fitness track._

_"Thanks, Midoriya. You're a lifesaver." The girl said in a grateful tone._

_"You're welcome." The boy simply responded._

_"Oh man, this looks like fun!" The girl with pink skin and horns jovially cheered._

_"Fun you say?" Aizawa's tone shifted in a way that sent a chill up most of the student's spines. "If you think your time here will be fun, then you're sorely mistaken. These tests aren't just to see what you're capable of. The student with the lowest score after all events...will be expelled."_

_A collective silence grew over the crowd as the black haired man's words sunk in. That was immediately followed by some protesting words from a few of the other students. "If you have a problem with it, then that's just too bad."_

_"Shit." Jiro cursed under her breath as nervous sweat formed on the back of her neck._

_"Since we've already started with the ball throw test, we'll just continue on from there. Which one of you is Izuku Midoriya?"_

_"I am, sensei." The tall, green haired boy calmly raised his hand. Jiro heard a low scoffing sound from the other end of the group, but had no clue who it came from._

_"You got the highest score on the entrance exam by a pretty wide margin, didn't you? You're next." The teacher announced. With that little nugget of information, everyone's focus was instantly locked onto him._

_All the boy did was nod and make his approach over to the circle as the pro hero tossed him the ball. Like the previous student did before him, Midoriya bounced the ball in his left hand a couple of times as he got ready to throw. However, just before he could make his attempt the boy stopped at the beginning of his motion and turned his head over to the group._

_"Jiro-san." He called out in a dry tone._

_"Yeah?" She arched an eyebrow at him._

_"Cover your ears."_

_"Uh…sure." The 'earphone jack' user compiled as she pressed her hands on either side of her face. The other students gave them a few curious glances before taking the hint and following the girl's lead. Then, a surge of bright green electricity erupted from the boy's body._

_"Wh-what the fuck is that, Deku?!"_

_Midoriya didn't bother responding before launching the ball with enough force to break the sound barrier. The entire class was nearly knocked off its feet by the ensuing shockwave. Jiro was once again thankful for the warning or else she might've actually passed out from the sonic boom alone._

_"893.9 meters, not bad." Aizawa commented while showing everyone the score._

_"Damn, how the hell am I supposed to compete with that?" One student said._

_"Wait, isn't he the same guy who wasted that zero-pointer during the entrance exam?" Another stated immediately after._

_Midoriya ignored the comments and made his way back over to the group. It took a moment for Jiro to shake off the initial shock of finally seeing the guy's quirk in action. She already knew that he was smart, considering he finished second overall in their class back in Mandalore Middle School. But she had no clue that he was that strong as well._

_"Thanks for save." She told the green haired boy as he walked passed her and towards the back of the class._

_"It was no problem." He dryly responded._

_'Huh, I guess Yamanaka was right. He's not a total asshole after all.'_

* * *

"What a kind gesture." Shiozaki stated.

"I'll say, if it wasn't for him I probably would've gone deaf before the tests even started." Jiro joked.

"I guess it makes sense why you were pretty much his only friend in class for a while. Even Itsuka thought he was an asshole."

"Well…it's not like he wasn't." She responded with a sarcastic shrug. Earning a few laughs from everyone at the table.

The rest of their lunch went by pretty normally after that. Asui didn't bother asking anymore questions about Midoriya or his habits. But Kendou made sure to shoot him a text to give him the heads up. Just in case she wanted to ask him about it directly.

* * *

"Well young man, everything seems to be in order. I'm actually proud that you've managed to do so well in keeping yourself from getting injured. You're doing much better than when Toshinori first introduced you to me." Recovery said with a slight bit of amusement in her voice.

"I can't argue with you there, Shuzenji-san." Midoriya gave a slight laugh while rubbing the back of his head.

"Ah yes, I still remember the first time that oaf brought you here after he gave you 'One for All.'."

"Oh…yeah…."

* * *

~_A little over twelve months before the school year.~_

_"Ahh! Toshinori-san, m-my a-arm!"_

_"Oh shit! That does not look good!"_

_"Toshinori you damn idiot! This is why I told you not to let him go all out!"_

_"I-I mean, I kinda expected something like this happen but I-I-I didn't know it would be this bad!"_

_"You knew this would happen?!"_

_"It was theory!"_

_"Just shut the hell up and call Chiyo, you fool! Tell her that we're bringing the boy with us!"_

_"Yes sir, right away!"_

* * *

"Yeah...that was not a good day." Midoriya deadpanned as the memory briefly flashed in his mind.

"It certainly was not." The elder woman did her best to hold back a chuckle. "Is there anything troubling you? You're already here, so if you're having any problems, now is the time to speak up."

"Aside from a few headaches over the last few days, I'm fine." He told her. Headaches that have been occurring ever since his brief "chat" with Nana Shimura.

"I see…" She nodded. "I'll prescribe you some medication to help with that. If it persists through the weekend, let me know on Monday."

"Right, no problem."

"In any case, you've been doing very well lately. I'd like to limit these weekly visits to once a month. Do you think I can trust you enough for that?"

Midoriya couldn't help but smiling after hearing that. He understood the necessity for the weekly visits, but he would be lying if he said that they weren't becoming a bit of a hassle. "Yes, ma'am."

"Good. Are the teacher's still doing their random visits?"

"Yes, most of the time they just show up in the morning before everyone else is awake so no one would ask questions."

"Good. Well, that's all for today. You're free to head back to your dorm now."

"Thank you, Shuzenji-san." The boy said with a polite bow before taking his leave.

* * *

The following morning, the students of 1-B were making their way over to Training Ground Gamma. It went without saying, but everyone was more than pumped up for today's special training. Kan had already informed them of what was on the schedule for the day and they were ready to get started. Another reason the students had to be excited was that they finally got the chance to test out their new cold weather costumes. There weren't any dramatic changes for the most part, minus a few exceptions. Kendou herself only added elbow-length sleeves to her top, while Jiro pretty much just added a long sleeve undershirt. Of course, the only audacious costume alteration came from Midoriya.

Then entire outfit was practically unchanged, minus the arm bracer. After the yakuza raid, the green haired teen needed to get a new one made. The latest model was slightly darker with green trim along the panels. On top of that, the solid green star was replaced by a green and white target with a red star in the center. Once Kendou got a look at it, she could help but laugh as it only further proved her early assumptions.

"Well, if it isn't the famous class 1-B!" Kendou could already feel her breakfast coming back up after hearing the unmistakable screeching of Neito Monoma from her right.

The students all turned their attention towards to opposite path leading up to the training ground to see class 1-A. A few quick greetings and high fives were exchanged before Monoma decided to do what he does best.

"I hope you losers are ready. Because whatever training the teachers have set up for us, we're going to prove the superior might of class 1-A!" The _'copy'_ quirk user said with a tone of pure arrogance.

_'Well, at least he's consistent.'_ All of the 1-B students deadpanned at the blonde boy's antics.

"Wait a second…" Kendou looked towards the other class once Monoma's words caught up to her. "You guys don't know what we're doing today?"

"Aizawa-sensei didn't tell us. He just said that we needed to come prepared." Uraraka answered in a slightly annoyed tone.

Jiro snickered along with Kaminari. "Yeah, that sounds like something he would do."

"Hurry up, we don't have all day!" The voice of Kan shouted from the main viewing platform.

In no time flat, the hero course students rushed over to the area to meet up with their instructors for this all-day training event. In addition to Aizawa and Kan, were Yagi, Midnight and Snipe.

"Always boys and girls, listen up!" The blood theme hero stated to get their undivided attention. "I have recently been informed that class 1-A isn't aware of what's going on today. So...we're going to give a brief rundown on how things are going to go." He said while scowling at Aizawa.

"But before that, let me be the first to tell to not embarrass yourselves. We have a special guest today so make sure to be on your best behavior." The black haired man told them before motioning over to the other end of the platform with his thumb.

Everyone shifted the attention to where the man was pointing and more than a few of them were shocked when a kid with gravity defying purple hair came strolling up. The general studies student was sporting a gym uniform along with what looked like Aizawa's signature capture cloth and some type of half-mask.

"Oh man, is that Shinsou?!" Tetsutetsu said what everyone else was thinking.

_'He's bulked up a bit.'_ Midoriya thought.

"A few of you may remember him from the Sports Festival. Shinsou here is trying to transfer into the hero course seeing as there's an open spot available." Aizawa explained. "Go ahead and greet everyone."

"All of you are ahead of me by a pretty significant margin. As of right now, you're just obstacles in the way of me achieving my goal, so don't underestimate me." The purple haired teen galred at the hero course students in an attempt at intimidation.

_"That's one hell of an introduction."_ Tokage said in a low tone towards Kendou, receiving a nod in return.

"Oh, I like this one." Monoma smirked while deviously rubbing his chin.

Hoping to get things back on track, Kan quickly silenced the crowd. "Today will essentially be group combat drills. You will all be split into predetermined teams of five that will be a mixture of students from both classes. Your matchups have already been decided by us as well."

"The goal of this exercise is to capture all five mebers of the opposing team and put them inside the cages that are located at either start points." Midnight followed up while striking a slightly inappropriate pose.

"That's seems pretty straightforward." Mineta said, seemingly conveying the rest of the students thoughts.

"There is a catch to all of this though." Snipe interjected while twirling his pistol on one finger.

"Additionally, we can terminate any one you student's participation in this event. If we deem that you are causing an unnecessary amount of damage to the training field, are not able to continue due to injury or defeat, or present a danger to either yourselves or the other students, you will be pulled immediately." Yagi added.

"Sir, so what you're saying is that it's possible for an entire team to be pulled from the match at the same time?" Iida spoke up, robotically flailing his arms.

"Yes." The now retired hero nodded.

"Before we begin does anyone have any questions about the rules of this exercise?" Midnight asked, only to be met with silence from the students.

"Fantastic! Here are the groups that we have assigned." The blood themed hero pulled up a holoprojector behind him. Everyone's eyes immediately scanned over the screen to see who they were going to be teamed up with.

Team 1: Midoriya, Jiro, Kirishima, Tsunotori, Rin

Team 2: Kendou, Yaoyorozu, Tokoyami, Kaminari, Awase

Team 3: Uraraka, Ojiro, Shiozaki, Mineta, Shoji

Team 4: Tokage, Ashido, Kamakiri, Shoda, Satou

Team 5: Honenuki, Iida, Monoma, Hagakure, Shinsou

Team 6: Todoroki, Tsuburaba, Yanagi, Koda, Kuroiro

Team 7: Asui, Bondo, Fukidashi, Komori, Kaibara

Team 8: Tetsutetsu, Aoyama, Sero, Shishida, Kodai

There were a mixture of cheers and subtle groans from the students once everyone finished reading the list. Kendou herself was pretty satisfied with her own team. Yaoyorozu and Tokoyami had pretty strong quirks, and Awase was definitely no slouch. Kaminari wasn't the brightest bulb in the box, but his quirk was still a game changer. To be honest, she felt like she lucked out.

However, while reading over the other teams she was a bit perplexed. The teachers said that they organized the teams themselves, but she was having a hard time figuring out the methodology behind their selections. Obviously they took individual strength into account, that much was clear. But what else was there?

"Alright, the first match up will be Team 2 versus Team 3. Both groups head over to your start points and wait for the signal. Since you're the first ones up we'll give you about fifteen minutes to prep. The rest of you, I suggest you use this time to strategize." Kan announced.

Kendou looked back up to screen to check the members of Team 3 once again. _'Uraraka-san's group, huh?'_ She thought before turning her head over to the class rep of 1-A. As luck would have it, Uraraka just so happened to do the same thing. The brunette was giving her a look of determination that said she wasn't here to play any games.

Just then, Kendou felt a familiar hand placed itself on her right shoulder. She then turned back around to see Midoriya giving her a wide grin and thumbs up. "Good luck out there, I'm rooting for ya'."

Kendou couldn't help but smile at the small gesture and gave him a thumbs up back. "You better be."

* * *

**Author's Notes: Let me just start by saying that I was not expecting to have this chapter out so soon. Unfortunately, I had to get treatment on my shoulder again so I'm back to typing out chapters one handed for a while. I won't even try and give you guys an estimate on when the next update is coming out.**

**1\. The battles begin. I'm just going to let you guys know now that I will only be writing out two matches for this arc. Those will be Midoriya's and Kendou's. The others I'll just do a brief overview on.**

**2\. How do you guys like the teams? Obviously, certain people are in certain groups for a reason. So you'll just have to wait and see how they interact. I have a few interesting things cooked up for the first round though.**

**3\. That whole Jiro scene was actually put in at the last minute. Someone PM'd me saying that they wanted more Jiro and Midoriya moments and I just thought it would be a good idea. Plus it gives a little more reason as to why Jiro was so cool with Midoriya as opposed to everyone else.**

**4\. We're pretty much in the home stretch of this story now (Right now I have it ending in about 8-10 chapters). I'm really interested in writing another BNHA fic after I'm done with this one. However, I can't decide on what kind of story it will be. I'm open to hearing what kind of stories you guys would like to read, maybe it'll give me some inspiration.**

**Like always, thanks for reading and don't be afraid to drop a review.**


	45. Joint Training Arc: Part 3

With the announcement of the first match, Teams 2 and 3 made their way over to their designated starting points. Even though Kendou wanted to feel confident about their chances at victory, she wasn't dumb enough to underestimate their opponents. Sure, their group had the advantage in terms of firepower. But the other team was more balanced.

"Alright, does anyone have any ideas on how we're going to do this?" Kendou looked to her teammates.

"Honestly...I'm drawing a blank." Said Awase.

All Kaminari could do was give a confused shrug. "Same."

"Ibara is a pretty big problem by herself. But Uraraka-san and Shoji-kun definitely shouldn't be taken lightly."

"Agreed, the three of them present quite the obstacle for anyone who can't fight well at a distance." Tokoyami stated a bit nervously.

"Do you have any ideas, Momo-chan?" Kendou turned to Yaoyorozu, hoping that she had already cooked up something brilliant.

"Huh?" The raven haired teen gave her a weary look.

"You're the smartest one out of all of us. I'm sure you probably already have something cooked up."

Yaoyorozu paused for a minute as she nervously rubbed her hands together. For some reason, the girl seemed really tense. It was a strange sight for Kendou because she had never really seen the '_creation'_ quirk user act in such a way.

"Are you alright?" The girl asked.

"Y-yes." She said with a slight tremble. "I'm sorry, but I'm having a difficult time coming up with an effective strategy. I don't think that..."

There was definitely something off about the way that she was behaving, but Kendou decided to push that aside for later. They didn't really have a lot of time to come up with an effective plan. The group racked their brains for a good two minutes before the lightbulb went off over Kendou's head. It was a pretty ambitious idea, but it had a reasonably high chance of success if everything went the way that it was supposed to.

"I think I might have something." The orange haired teen announced as she unofficially took control of the group.

"Well don't leave us hanging!" Awase told her.

"It's pretty crazy, but I think it will work."

"I'm all ears." Kaminari grinned.

* * *

Back at the monitoring area, the rest of the students and the teachers were gathered around the viewing screens. Most of everyone was still huddled together in their respective groups minus a few people here and there. Midoriya, Jiro, Todoroki, Rin, Tokage, Tetsutetsu and Tsunotori were standing near the back of the class while Kirishima took it upon himself to awkwardly place himself a few meters away from them.

"So, how do you think this is going to turn out?" Jiro asked no one in particular.

Todoroki was the first to answer. "Kendou's team has the advantage in raw power, while Uraraka's team is more evened out."

"I want to say that Itsuka's team is going to win this, but Ibara and Uraraka-san are going to be the biggest problems, along with Shoji-san and Mineta-san." Midoriya stated while furrowing his brow.

"Why do you say that?" Tsunotori asked.

"Because those two are probably going to be the wild cards." Tokage spoke up while getting a few curious looks from everyone around them. "Mineta may be a sleaze, but his quirk is a serious problem to deal with. And Shoji's not only strong, but he's pretty damn good at recon. If it were me, I'd plan on getting them out of the way as early as possible along with Ibara."

"That would make the most sense, take out their eyes and ears and let the rest of them do the guesswork." Tsuburaba agreed.

"But Uraraka-san is there to."

"You're right. But as long as they can avoid getting within arm's reach of her, she won't be able to use her quirk. If anything, she'll be the one that Itsuka and Awase-kun would want to avoid." Midoriya said with a slightly troubled tone.

"Aww!" Tokage gushed while playfully pinching the green haired boy's cheeks. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say that you were worried about her, loverboy."

"W-well…."

"In any case, you shouldn't count out Yaoyorozu." Todoroki added. "She'll be one that Uraraka's team will need to put most of their focus on."

"Those are all excellent points, students." Yagi said with a grin. "But one thing that all of you should remember is that the battlefield is fluid. Anything can happen."

"Yes, sensei." The students all said in unison.

"Alright, that's fifteen minutes. Let's get this show on the road!"

* * *

"**Begin!"** The voice of Kan announced over the loudspeaker, signalling the start of the match.

Without a moment's delay, Team 2 quickly made their way through the gate and into the training ground.

"Alright guys, just like we planned. Momo-chan, Kaminari-kun, if you guys get in any hot water just radio in and we'll get to your location as soon as possible."

"You can on us!" The '_electrification'_ user gave her a thumbs up.

"Awesome!" Kendou returned the gesture before turning to Tokoyami and Awase. "Alright guys, it's time to go to work."

The two boys gave her a quick nod before their group split up in different directions. Yaoyorozu and Kaminari ran down one of the side roads while Kendou, Tokoyami and Awase made a beeline straight for the middle of the training ground. They had no clue what the other team had planned, but Kendou had a pretty good idea of what they were going to do. Their first priority was getting rid of Shoji and Mineta as soon as possible, and hope that Shiozaki was out of the way long enough for them to do that.

"Tokoyami-kun, are we close enough for you scout ahead now?"

"Yes." The raven headed teen told her before allowing '_dark shadow'_ to come forth. I the blink of an eye, the shadow spirit rocketed ahead to give them an idea of what was going on in front of them. The trio decided to hold in place for a minute while they waited for some intel. Kendou and Awase taking up defensive positions to protect the boy.

'_This is pretty much going to give away our position, but we'll just have to deal with it.'_ Kendou told herself while still keeping her eyes peeled.

A few seconds later, dark shadow returned.

"They're all still grouped together minus the tailed guy girl and the purple weasel." The shadow spirit told them.

"Did you see where they went?" Awase asked the creature.

"Nope."

"Alright." Kendou said while placing her hand up to her earpiece that Yaoyorozu made for the group. "Momo-chan, how are you guys doing?"

"We're in position, and we haven't seen anyone yet." Kaminari was the one to answer seeing as Yaoyorozu was still preoccupied with preparations for their plan.

"Okay, keep your eyes peeled. Ojiro-san and Mineta-san split off from the rest of the group."

"You got it, bosslady!"

With that, the transmission was over and Kendou's group prepared for their inevitable collision with the others. Unfortunately for them, the wait barely lasted a few seconds before Team 3 was right on top of them.

"Release!" The voice of Uraraka said from above them. Kendou upturned her gaze to see the brunette quickly descending to their position after appearing from behind a nearby tower.

"Watch out!" The orange haired teen shouted while pushing Awase out of the way, just before he could get touched.

Uraraka wasted no time in getting down to business and start unloading a series of well-aimed punches towards Kendou.

If she was being honest, this was exactly the fight that Kendou was hoping to avoid. The class rep of 1-A certainly had the advantage when it came to quirks. All she had to do was touch her and Kendou was pretty much done for. So instead of going on the offensive, she focused on simply avoiding the girl's hands and tried to look for an opening.

Uraraka switched up her approach from a more boxing type of style and attempted to grab a hold of Kendou. However, the orange haired girl was able to see through this and managed to sidestep her in time to avoid getting caught. Now with a pretty good opening, it was Kendou's turn to make a move.

The orange haired girl used all of newfound martial arts knowledge and pivoted on her trailing foot while raising her left hand. In one swift motion, the girl spun around and delivered an open palm strike right to Uraraka's face. The very audible grunt that resulted was more than enough to let Kendou know that it was a good hit. Hoping not to lose any of her momentum, she repeated the action once again, pivoting and spinning on her back foot before delivering a solid right jab to the middle of the girl's chest.

* * *

"That was a pretty nice move." Jiro whistled.

"I've never seen her do something like that before." Said Tokage.

"That was circle walking." This time it was Rin's turn to put in his two cents. A few of the surrounding students giving him weird looks.

"What's that?" Tsunotori asked.

"It's a type of martial art that originated in China. It's all about using momentum to keep yourself in your opponent's blind spots."

"I thought she was all about Taekwondo and Karate?"

"It's something she learned during our work study. She found a way to use it to use it compliment her quirk pretty well." Midoriya explained.

"Oh really?" Everyone's attention turned back to the monitor.

* * *

With a clear advantage now on her side, Kendou decided to kick it up a notch. The '_big fist'_ user enlarged her right hand and lunged directly towards Uraraka. All the brunette could do was throw up her guard and prepare for the strike. But at the last second, Kendou deactivated her quirk in her right hand, pivoted herself behind Uraraka, enlarged her left hand and delivered a powerful strike that was strong enough to send the girl flying a good seven meters forward.

While two class reps were engaged in battle, Shoji and Shiozaki finally decided to make their presence known.

Shiozaki was quick to send a wave of vines towards Tokoyami and Awase, but the raven headed teen was fast enough to react and used '_dark shadow'_ to shield the two of them from the attack. However, right as he did that, Shoji suddenly appeared on their left side and grabbed a hold of Awase's arm, pulling him away. It became pretty clear to Team 2 that their opponent's goal was to split them and force them into unfavorable matchups.

Now that Awase was out of the way, Shiozaki took advantage of the situation and sent another wave of vines toward Tokoyami. The raven headed student didn't have enough time to formulate a thought while he did his best to avoid the attacks. Thankfully for him, the vine haired girl let up just long enough for him to once again activate '_dark shadow'_ and form the shadow spirit around his body.

* * *

"What…is that?!" Midoriya looked around for answers as he absentmindedly started writing in his: "**Hero Analysis for the Future, Pocket Edition."**

'_He seriously carries one of those in his utility belt?'_ Nearly everyone deadpanned at the miniature sized notebook.

"Fumikage has found a way to merge himself with '_dark shadow'_. I believe he calls it "_Black Ankh"_." Todoroki responded in usually stoic tone.

"That's amazing!" The green haired boy directed his attention back to the screen where Tokoyami was now holding his own against Shiozaki. '_I wonder if I can do something like that with 'black whip'.'_

"I don't see why you can't. It sounds like a pretty good idea." Jiro answered his silent question with a shrug.

"Huh?" He gave the girl a questioning look.

"Using '_black whip'_ like that, it would make sense." She further clarified.

"Wait, I said that out loud?"

"No, you did that weird muttering thing again. I'm pretty sure if it wasn't for my quirk I would never be able to hear you. You do it all the time."

"Oh…." Midoriya slightly blushed after hearing this. All this time he thought he finally managed to internalize his muttering habit, but apparently he was wrong. Just then, a rather dangerous thought popped into his head. "H-hey Kyoka, have you…ever heard me mention anything…weird?"

Jiro chose not to say anything. Instead, the '_earphone jack'_ user just gave him a rather curious look. One that told him that the two were due for a conversation later.

"Hey, check it out!" One of the other students shouted while pointing at a different screen.

* * *

With the melee in full swing, it was hard to see who exactly had the upper hand. Uraraka and Kendou were going back and forth with each other while trying to get some type of advantage. Tokoyami and Shiozaki were using their quirks in a long range battle that was proving to be a stalemate. And Awase was doing everything he could to simply avoid Shoji.

"You're a lot better than I thought, Uraraka-san." Kendou smirked while she took a moment to catch her breath.

"Thanks." Uraraka gave her a satisfied smirk. "I heard that you're pretty good when it comes to fighting. So I wanted to see how I'd measure up."

"Well, you're definitely giving me a run for my money."

"Good to know." Was all she said before charging at her.

As she made her approach, Uraraka made sure to keep herself low to the ground. Kendou saw this as her chance to finally put the girl down for good and enlarged both of her hands. Just when the girl was about six meters away from her, the '_big fist'_ user brought her hands together.

"**Thunderclap!"** Kendou shouted as the small shockwave hit Uraraka and momentarily disoriented her.

Right when she was about to make a move to grab her, a loud grunt from Awase drew her attention. The girl looked over to see the boy pinned down by Shoji with his hands behind his back. Kendou paused for a moment as she weighed her options before coming to the decision to help out her teammate.

"Shiozaki-san, take this one away!" Shoji shouted to the vine haired girl.

Without missing a beat, Shiozaki abandoned her battle with Tokoyami and immediately put herself beside the masked teen. The girl used one of her vines to bind his hands while using the rest to wrap his entire body. Before Kendou or Tokoyami could do anything to stop it, Shiozaki began moving away from the battlefield and into the direction of their starting point.

"Awase-kun!"

"Don't worry about me, just try and fucking win!" The boy shouted back while struggling to break free from his prison.

"Kendou, behind you!" The voice of Tokoyami alerted the girl just in time to avoid falling victim to Uraraka's quirk. On instinct the girl dropped to the ground and kicked one of her legs out, hitting her opponent right in the gut. Uraraka staggered back for second which gave Kendou the chance to finally get back onto her feet and pick up her preferred stance.

"Itsuka-chan, this is Momo. We're ready to go, but we can only see Ojiro-san and Mineta-san. Where are you guys?" The voice of Yaoyorozu said over the ear piece.

"Awase has been captured." Tokoyami was the one to respond.

"Wait really? Dammit!" Kaminari loudly groaned before Yaoyorozu clamped her hand over his mouth.

Kendou looked back over to Uraraka who was moving around her, patiently waiting for an opening. "So let me guess. Your plan was tire us out with these matchups and let Ibara pull clean up duty."

"Was our plan that easy to read through?"

"Kinda." Kendou smirked before turning on her heels and making her way towards her teammate. "

Tokoyami-kun, let's go!"

"Right!" The raven headed teen nodded before throwing his cloak over his back. The boy then commanded '_dark shadow'_ to reform itself and everyone watched as the shadow spirit seemingly sprouted a set of wings.

Hoping to stop them from escaping, Shoji made a mad dash towards the boy but failed to reach them in time before Tokoyami grabbed Kendou by the shoulders and lifted her up off the ground. The duo flying away in the direction of their teammates.

* * *

"Holy shit, is he flying?!" Kaibara shouted in amazement.

"It kind a makes sense that he'd be able to do something like that."

"Dude, Fumikage's kind of a badass." Jiro said in an impressed tone.

* * *

"Momo-chan, Kaminari-kun, we're heading your way. What's your situation like?"

"We're just waiting for the signal. Mineta-san and Ojiro-san have been wandering around, I think they're trying to find us."

"Alright, we ditched Uraraka-san and Shoji-kun. But they'll probably try and regroup with everyone else. And then Ibara-"

"**Yosetsu Awase has been captured!"** The voice of Kan announced over the loudspeaker.

"Yeah…that." The girl deadpanned at the announcements perfect timing.

"Just do what you can to get over here. But once you guys show up, they'll know our position so we won't be able to hide."

"That's fine, we'll be there in a second."

In a matter of seconds the duo rejoined with their teammates who were perched atop a small tower. The structure was surrounded by heavy pipes that provided an ample amount of both cover and concealment. On the way down however, they were in full view of the members of the other team. Ojiro and Mineta wasted no time in making a beeline straight to their position.

"Damn, they're coming right for us." Kaminari cursed under his breath.

"And the rest of their team hasn't shown up yet."

"I'm gonna try and stall them." Kendou suggested while tightening down the straps on her shield. "I'm pretty sure I can handle Ojiro-san, but Mineta-san is going to be an issue for me."

"I'll provide you with assistance." Tokoyami added.

"The others shouldn't be that far away. Kaminari-kun, when I give you the signal light the place up."

"Are you sure? You're gonna be cutting it pretty close." The '_electrification' _quirk user wasn't too keen on his teammates potentially being collateral damage of his quirk..

"Yeah."

"Fine." The boy relented.

Thankfully for Team 2, everything was still going somewhat according to plan. Losing Awase was definitely a major blow with how useful his quirk is. But the plan could still go on without him.

Picking up where they left off, Tokoyami once again grabbed Kendou and two of them made their approach to Ojiro and Mineta. In truth, Kendou was pretty confident in her skills against someone like Ojiro. As long as she avoided his tail, she'd be fine. Mineta on the other hand, was a bit more of a problem. One slip up and the '_pop off'_ quirk user would leave her unable to move, let alone fight. Despite his rather unsavory personality, he was actually quite dangerous.

"So boys, would it be too much to ask you to just give up?" Kendou said in an attempt to taunt to two.

"Fat chance!" Mineta shouted back. "Your boyfriend's the scary one in your relationship, not you!"

…

…

…

* * *

"Oh…shit." Kamakiri tried to stifle his laughter. The '_blade'_ quirk user was now very thankful that the cameras also had microphones so they could hear what was being said.

All Monoma could is shake his head in disappointment "That poor fool."

"Guys, is Mineta about to die?"

"He has a point though Wonderboy, you are pretty scary." Tokage playfully patted Midoriya's shoulder. "Even if on the inside you're really just a giant cinnamon roll."

"Please stop." The green haired boy blush.

* * *

"Tokoyami-kun…"

"Yes-" The raven haired teen was thrown off by the dark aura that suddenly surround Kendou. As someone avid in the ways of darkness, even he couldn't help but feel intimidated by the girl's presence. And if the veins bulging out of her forehead was any indication, she was not in a good mood.

"I changed my mind, you can handle Ojiro-san. I'll deal with _him_."

"O-of course." The boy took a small step back to let the girl pass by him.

Almost immediately, Mineta felt a chill go up his spine. The purple haired student didn't give Kendou a chance to go any further before unleashing a flurry of balls in her direction. In response, Kendou enlarge her left hand and activated her shield. The device providing enough protection for her to simply walk towards him all while maintaining her glare.

Like everyone else, Ojiro could see the outcome of this coming from a mile away. The tailed boy dashed towards Kendou in an attempt to subdue her, however '_dark shadow'_ suddenly appeared in front of him and knocked him onto his back.

Mineta began frantically hurling more balls at Kendou with reckless abandon, but each attack proved to be more futile than the last. By the time Kendou was on top of him, it was already too late. His scalp was bleeding and there was a faint trail of blood leaking down his head.

"W-wait Kendou, I'm sorry. I-I didn't mean it!" He fearfully waved his hands in front of his face.

Instead of a verbal response, what Mineta got was the girl enlarging her right hand and delivering a neck chop that may have been slightly too forceful for the teachers liking. This action earning more than a few cheers from the girls of 1-A.

"**Minrou Mineta is unable to continue!"** Midnight stated over the loudspeaker.

Kendou immediately turned around to see how Tokoyami was doing. But just as she was doing so, she watched Ojiro slip past 'dark shadow' and deliver a rather powerful tail strike.

"Tokoyami-kun!" The girl bounded her way over to her teammate. But Kendou stopped in her tracks at the sound of Yaoyorozu's voice practically shouting into her ear.

"Itsuka-chan, Tokoyami-kun, you have company!"

As if on cue, Uraraka, Shoji and Shiozaki all came sprinting up to their location. The three teammates making a beeline directly for Kendou. For a split moment, the girl was torn between what her next move was going to be. Taking on the three of them was definitely a no-go. And with the remnant of Mineta's balls everywhere, there wasn't a lot of space to move.

"Kendou, everyone's in position. You and Tokoyami get the hell out of the way!" Kaminari commanded.

With the decision already made for her, Kendou quickly complied and began retreating back to a safe spot. All while dropping her shield that was infested with the remnants of Mineta's quirk.

Tokoyami was quick to follow her lead and abandoned his scuffle with Ojiro to join her. Without saying a word, the bird themed hero allowed '_dark shadow'_ to reform itself once again and take up its flying form before grabbing Kendou by the shoulders.

The four remaining members of Team 3 were quick to follow before Uraraka spotted Kaminari standing in front of them a good two hundred meters away on top of the tower. The boy had his hand in a "finger gun" position and was aiming at something to the right of them.

"Kaminari-kun, do it!"

"**Sharpshooting!"** The boy shouted with a wide grin before shooting a massive arc of electricity at one of the lightning rods on a nearby wall.

The next thing Uraraka felt was a wave of electricity hit her body before everything went dark.

* * *

"Wow, Denki was actually useful for once." Jiro joked, not realizing that she just used the boy's first name in front of everyone.

"Wait, what just happened?" Tetsutetsu looked around for clarification.

"They obviously fell for a trap." Tokage said matter-of-factly.

"How?"

"Look on the ground." Monoma pointed to the screen.

Everyone shifted their eyes a bit to see that the ground was covered in some type of brown netting. Upon further inspection, it seemed to be covering a good portion of the area that the battle was taking place in. Also, there were a few of what looked like Kaminari's disk shaped lightning rods scattered throughout the area as well.

"What the hell?"

"The reason why Yaoyorozu-san and Kaminari-san went off on their own was to set that trap up." The '_copy'_ quirk user began explaining. "I'm pretty sure that's copper wiring on the ground, which is a great conductor for electricity."

"That was probably their plan all along."

"Wait a second!" Iida began chopping the air. "If that was the plan then why did Tokoyami-kun and the others engage the other team at the start of the match?"

"It was probably a temperature assessment." Tsunotori answered, earning a slew of confused looks from almost everyone around her.

"I think she means a "heat check"." Midoriya clarified.

"She's right." Honenuki added. "They did that to see how the other team would react and to draw them in. However, I don't think losing Yosetsu was a part of that plan."

"I see." Iida nodded.

"If you guys are done comparing notes, you'll see that the fight isn't over yet." Tokage pointed to the monitor.

* * *

"Did that get everybody?" Kendou asked. Thinking out loud rather than really asking the question.

"**Mashirao Ojiro, Ochako Uraraka and Mezo Shoji are unable to continue!"** Kan announced.

"What?" The girl looked down. Sure enough, Shiozaki was the lone survivor of the attack. The vine haired teen used her quirk to shield herself from the electric shock at the very last second. Her hair was able to absorb most of it, but she certainly didn't come out of it unscathed.

"My goodness, that was quite the attack." The girl said with a slight cough, making sure to use her hair to keep herself from touching the ground directly.

"Ibara, give up!" Kendou shouted to the girl. "Your whole team is out!"

"I apologize Itsuka, but I am unable to do that."

There was a brief standstill before Shiozaki decided to unleash the full power of her quirk. Her hair practically erupted into a net of vines that encompassed a good portion of the area. Tokoyami was barely fast enough to dodge the few that made their way over to him and Kendou.

* * *

Shoda was the first to notice the similarity of Shiozaki's attack. "Hey, doesn't that remind you off…"

"Yeah, Izuku isn't that one of your moves?" Komori looked to the green haired boy.

"Huh, it does kind of remind me of "**Blackout"**."

* * *

Kaminari barely had a chance to move before he was ensnared by the girl's quirk. His electricity was pretty much useless against the girls vines so he was out of luck. With one a last ditch effort, Shiozaki attempted to flee back to their starting point with the '_electrification'_ quirk user in tow. But the girl suddenly found herself unable to move when '_dark shadow'_ wrapped itself around her, completely restricting her body and her hair.

"I would advise you to submit, there is no escaping this situation." The raven headed teen suggested.

Shiozaki struggled for a few more seconds before finally giving up. "Fine, I shall relent. You've bested me." She said with a heavy sigh.

"**Ibara Shiozaki is unable to continue. Team 2 Wins!"** Midnight announced. "**Everyone who is still conscious, please return to the monitoring area while the medical bots get collect your classmates."**

* * *

It didn't take long for the remaining students to rejoin their classmates after the announcement. Kendou was feeling pretty proud of herself right now. Her half-baked plan had actually worked and they only lost one person. Of course that wasn't really anything to be happy about. In real life, losing anyone was unacceptable. But she'll take the win for now and worry about that later.

"That was an excellent showing, all of you." Kan said to the returning group of students.

"Not bad Red! If it wasn't for Awase's fuck up, you guys would've had a flawless victory." Tokage congratulated her best friend.

"I'm so sorry guys! I'll do better in the future, I promise." The '_weld'_ quirk user said through a few shameful tears.

"We'll save the reviews for after all of the matches are done." Aizawa groaned out. "For now let's just move on to the next match."

"So who's next, sensei?" Hagakure asked with much anticipation in her voice.

"The next match up will be Team 1 versus Team 5."

* * *

**Author's Notes: I'm back!**

**1\. How did you guys like this fight? At first I wanted to have some overly complicated battle scene between Kendou and Uraraka, but I decided against it. Kendou is obviously more skilled when it comes to fighting so I doubt Uraraka would be able to outmatch her. But she would give her a run for her money. Plus, I wanted to show Kendou's strategic mind more than anything.**

**2\. One other thing is that during these battles I want every character to have a moment and not just focus on Kendou or Midoriya.**

**3\. Next fight is Team 1 vs Team 5, obviously. I'm only halfway through that one so I can't really give a good estimate on when the chapter will be posted. There are a lot of moving pieces and the fight is...complicated with everyone involved. One thing I can tell you though is that a character is getting one hell of a "power up". I'll let you guys guess on who it's gonna be.**

**4\. I've finally decided on what my next fic is going to be. And by overwhelming demand, it's going to be a Midoriya x Tokage fic. I've actually already outlined the first few chapters, but I'm gonna hold off on posting it until I'm done with this fic. Like this story, it's going to have a darker tone but it won't be too crazy. And Midoriya will be slightly OP (For good reason). He'll have a quirk that's simple, but very effective. I think you guys will enjoy it. (Hint: Rescue Hero Midoriya!)**

**5\. I really like some of the ideas that you guys suggested. But to be honest, I don't think I have the writing ability to pull some of them off. My favorite was from Username: Bucio. Having a crossover story between "M-K Ultra" and "Eavesdropping" where Jiro and Kendou switch Midoriya's for a little while would be hilarious. That one is definitely in the "Maybe" folder.**

**Like always, thanks for reading and don't be afraid to post a review.**


	46. Joint Training Arc: Part 4

_~Team 5~_

"So, I have a couple of ideas on how we can do this, but I wanted to pick your brains first." Honenuki said to the group as they made their way to the starting point.

Iida was the first to speak up. "Our top priority should be Midoriya-san. He'll surely be the biggest threat."

"Well then, I guess we lucked out!" Hagakure slightly cheered. "All we need is for Monoma to touch him and we'll have an even playing field."

"That...won't work, Hagakure-chan." The blonde quickly shut her down.

"What, why not?!"

"I've tried copying his quirk before. Back at the camp when he was still on his rampage, there was a moment when he grabbed me by the wrist after kicking me into a tree. I was able to copy it, but I was unable to use...it in a way." He explained.

"Explain."

"I believe his quirk isn't just a regular strength enhancement type. I'm assuming it more of an accumulation type like the pro hero Fatgum's. I might be able to wield it, but while he's probably got years of stored up energy to work with, I've only got minutes. I might be able to wield his other quirk, but with him we can't be too sure."

"So bottom line, that won't work." Honenuki clicked his teeth in annoyance. Honestly, he was hoping for Monoma to be the deciding factor in this fight. Copying Midoriya's quirk was too good of an opportunity to pass up. "Shinsou-san, you can brainwash people, right? You're gonna have to be our ace in the hole."

"You guys remember the Sports Festival, right?" The purple haired boy looked to them lazily. "Well, your classmate was able to figure out how my quirk works. So you might want to rethink that strategy."

"Damn, why is one guy such a big problem?"

"But…" Shinsou gave Hagakure a tired grin. "I do have this support item now. It lets me record a person's voice and use it to mask my own. And I just so happened to catch Kendou's before we left the viewing area."

"Damn, that's some pretty serious tech." Honenuki looked at the mask with intrigue.

"This is actually perfect!"

"It is." Iida interjected. "But let's not forget that Midoriya-san isn't the only member of their team. We need a strategy for everyone else."

"Well, we have another ten minutes before the match starts. Let's use this time to go over everything we know about our opponents and come up with a plan. I have a pretty ballsy one in mind, but I want to run some things by you guys. Plus I'd like to know how your quirks work."

* * *

_~Team 1~_

"So Izuku, what's the plan?" Jiro looked to Midoriya, expecting some kind of response.

"Huh?"

"Yeah, you're the one in charge!" Tsunotori followed up.

"Since when?"

"Since now." Rin told him.

Midoriya looked around at his teammates for a second to gauge their expressions. "A-are you sure?"

"Yeah, you're the strongest one here. And we know that you're a good strategist."

The horned girl's words were enough to force a small tinge of redness out of Midoriya's cheeks. In all honesty, the quirk inheritor didn't really think of himself as a good planner. If anything he was better at reacting to things rather than being proactive. He much preferred to see how things were unfolding and then come up with a plan. But considering who their opponents were, sorting a few things out ahead of time was a better idea.

"Well, I'd rather pick your guy's brains first before coming to a conclusion."

"If you ask me, our problems are going to be Monoma-san and Shinsou-san. Monoma-san can copy any one of our quirks and we don't know how Shinsou-san's ability works." Rin said.

"Midoriya, you beat him in the Sports Festival, what are we going up against?" Tsunotori inqured. As far as she knew, the purple haired general studies student had some sort of mind control power.

"I'm not certain, but I think his quirk requires some type of verbal exchange to activate. We should be okay as long as we don't talk to him."

"Then there shouldn't be anything to worry about." Kirishima spoke up for the first time.

"I'm not too sure about that." Midoriya quickly told him.

"Izuku's right, that's a problem. Honenuki and Monoma are already enough trouble. But with Shinsou we'll have to limit our communication around him to avoid getting brainwashed." Jiro said.

"So what should we do?"

"I think our priority should be taking out Monoma-san, he's too much of a wild card. Midoriya-kun, you're the only person that can match Iida-san in speed so you should take care of him." Rin suggested to the group.

"That sounds good to me."

"We could actually just use me as bait."

"No, they'll be expecting that. And Juzo won't fall for that a second time."

"Damn…."

"Do you have any ideas, Kirishima-san?" Midoriya asked the redhead who had barely said a word so far.

As Midoriya and Kirishima locked eyes with one another, there was a brief moment of awkward silence. The red haired teen had been noticeably more quiet than normal today, and wasn't his usually energetic self. And to everyone else, he looked a bit uneasy. "No, I'll go with whatever you decide."

With that, Midoriya kept racking his brain for some type of solution to their problem. Monoma was already enough of an issue by himself. Shinsou's quirk was too dangerous to leave him unaccounted for. Iida's speed outmatched nearly everyone else's, Honenuki's softening provided the perfect trap. And Hagakure's invisibility practically guaranteed that she could hide out the entire match. To be frank, their group dynamic was almost perfect.

"Honestly, their entire team was probably put together to fight Izuku. Why else would three of the top students be on the same team?" Jiro said while trying to come up with some type of solution herself.

Suddenly, the light bulb went off over Midoriya's head. "Guys, I think I have an idea on how we can win. It's pretty risky, but I think we can pull it off."

"Well spill! We don't have that much time left."

* * *

Back at the monitoring area, you could almost feel the anticipation in the air as everyone waited for this match to start. With the students going up against each other this round, it was certainly going to be an interesting match.

"So who do you think is going to win?" Ojiro asked no one in particular.

"Is it even a question? Midoriya's just gonna steamroll through everyone." Kaminari said with a slight chuckle.

"I wouldn't be so sure about that." Kendou responded, earning a few curious looks from some of the other students. No one was expecting her of all people to disagree with him.

"Itsuka's right, this match could go either way." Tokage added on.

"What do you mean?"

"Just look at the other team. Team 5 is pretty much the anti-Wonderboy squad."

"You think so?" Ashido asked curiously.

"Tokage-san does have a point." Aoyama said in a glittery tone.

"I'm confused."

"Just look at it this way, no one comes close to matching Wonderboy in speed except for Iida. You can't even see Hagakure so she can get the drop on you in an instant. And even though none of us have any idea what this Shinsou dude's quirk is, we do know that it's some type of mind control power."

"But didn't Midoriya-kun beat him in the Sport Festival? So he should know how his power works."

'_That's exactly why he's in this round.'_ Aizawa thought to himself.

"On top of that there's Monoma-san and Honenuki-kun."

"Yeah, Monoma can copy quirks." Kaibara added on. "So if he manages to touch Midoriya, that'll even the playing field."

'_That's honestly something that young Izuku should avoid for young Monoma's safety.'_ Yagi internalized.

"On top of that, Juzo's there too."

"Don't you think that you're hyping him up just a bit?"

"She's not." Kendou interjected.

"Ever since we switched classes, every time Wonderboy and Juzo have gone up against each other there hasn't been a clear winner. Not only is he one of the smarter guys in class, but Juzo's quirk is the perfect counter for Wonderboy. All they're missing is Todoroki and they'd have the perfect assault team." Tokage gave a toothy smirk.

"So what do you think will happen?"

"I-I think the best course of action for Team 1 would be to avoid having Midoriya-san come into contact with either Honenuki-san or Monoma-san. Those are the two biggest threats." Yaoyorozu meekly voiced her opinion.

'_Damn, that outfit just isn't fair.'_ Tokage thought while letting her eyes linger on Yaoyorozu longer than what they should have.

"It would be reckless for Team 5 to focus all of their resources on one person. They should prioritize using Iida's speed to capture Kyoka since her hearing range is pretty far. Her reconnaissance ability is also a major threat." Todoroki chimed in.

"And Midoriya has no doubt told them how to counter Shinsou's quirk already. Kirishima or Pony should be able to handle him."

"Those are all excellent points and observations students. I'm actually pleased to see that you all are paying such close attention to detail."

"I'm sure that this will be quite the entertaining affair." Midnight cooed in a slightly lecherous tone.

* * *

"**Begin!"**

Following the announcement, Team 5 made their move.

"Alright, does everyone remember the plan?" Honenuki ask his teammates one last time.

"Yes!" They all answered back simultaneously.

With a final nod, they split into two groups and made their way to different areas of the map. Monoma, Iida and Shinsou went east while Honenuki and Hagakure went west. Their entire plan depended on Team 1 and what their first move was. Everyone had their assumptions. But knowing Midoriya, he was probably going to try something slick.

* * *

At the same time, Team 1 was also putting their plan into motion.

"Remember guys, if things go sideways try to bail out and regroup. I'd prefer if we all stayed together, but I don't think we should take any chances." The green haired boy said to his team.

"Right!" Rin, Jiro and Tsunotori answered back, while Kirishima just silently nodded.

With that, their group also split up into two teams. Midoriya and Jiro going north, while Kirishima, Tsunotori and Rin went west.

* * *

"Interesting first move from Team 5." Midnight said curiously.

"Indeed" Yagi agreed. "It seems as though their focus is on even distribution of fighting strength."

"I agree. And it seems like Team 1 is going for a more "search and destroy" tactic." Kan stated.

Before the teachers could comment any further, one of the students suddenly spoke up.

"Hey, check it out. Jiro's riding Midoriya." Awase pointed to one of the larger monitors, causing everyone to direct their attention towards it. Sure enough, Midoriya and Jiro were moving through the training grounds at a pretty high speed. All while Jiro was clinging onto the boy like a sloth to a tree.

_"Tch, lucky bitch."_ Tokage said under her breath.

"Setsuna!" Kendou scowled at green haired girl.

"Okay, that one was an accident, I swear." She held her hands up defensively.

Although she would certainly never admit it out loud, Kendou did feel a slight twinge of annoyance in her chest watching her friend cling to her boyfriend so tightly. She wanted to say that she wasn't the jealous type, but that theory was disproven quite a while ago.

* * *

Back on the training ground, Midoriya and Jiro were soaring through the air at a relatively fast pace. The boy was effortlessly navigating himself between buildings and alleyways by using tendrils of '_black whip'_ to latch onto something nearby. Although jumping would've easily sufficed as a way of moving, he didn't want to hurt his partner with the sporadic and harsh movements.

Jiro on the other hand was clinging onto his back for dear life to make sure she didn't meet an early end after falling at least six stories onto the pavement.

After a few seconds of this, the two of them finally came up on their destination. Simply put, it was the tallest tower in the entire training area. The structure was more than big enough to hold a few people comfortably. But with its height, it was almost impossible to reach for anyone who couldn't either fly or leap tall buildings in a single bound.

"Alright, we made it."

"Finally!" Jiro groaned out. "I thought I was done for back there. I don't get how you can be used to moving that fast."

"It just takes an adjustment period." Midoriya slightly laughed.

"Whatever." The girl acquiesced before sticking one of her earphone jacks into the ground below them and activating her quirk.

Within seconds, Jiro was able to pick up a plethora of sounds coming from all directions. When it came to her long range hearing, she had some pretty incredible distance. So it was her job to try and get the location of their opponents. As Jiro focused and tuned in a bit more, she could practically form a map of the area inside her mind.

"You got anything yet?" Midoriya questioned.

"Yeah." She nodded while unplugging her quirk. "One of them is heading east towards Rin and the others. Three are about six hundred meters ahead of us. It's a bit outside of my range so I can't tell who they are. I don't know where the last one is though."

"That's fine. Great job Kyoka."

"Just remember to come and get me, alright." She told him, only receiving a quick nod in response.

With that, Midoriya activated his '_Full Cowling'_ once again and went to go scout out the larger of the two groups. Once he was done assessing the situation, he would head over to where his other teammates were and give them a helping hand.

* * *

"Wait, why did he just leave her there?" Ashido questioned.

"Seriously, Kyoka's all by herself." Kaminari echoed.

Kendou was about to answer the question before Tokage unintentionally cut her off. "She's probably their life insurance policy."

"I don't get it." Komori tilted her head in confusion.

"No one on that field except for Wonderboy can even reach the top of that tower. Not only that, but because of its height it's easier for her to scout things out. Pretty much, if everyone on Team 1 gets taken down, Kyoka can just wait it out until the teachers call it."

"I see." Shishida nodded.

* * *

While Midoriya was discretely moving through the pipes and terrain of Ground Gamma en route to his target, he couldn't help this uneasy feeling that he was getting. Something wasn't right. And what was worse, that buzzing in the back of his head was slowly starting to come back. Granted, it wasn't as intense as before. But the last thing he needed right now was to get a migraine in the middle of training.

Less than a minute after leaving Jiro, Midoriya finally spotted his targets. It was Iida and Shinsou, the two of them were lightly jogging through one of the streets completely out in the open. It would've been foolish to even think about confronting either of them when they were very obviously playing the role of decoys. The only concerning matter was that they were short one person. Jiro told him that there were three of them and her hearing is rarely ever wrong.

'_If I had to guess, I'd say that Juzo was with them as well. But he's probably staying out of sight.'_

Deciding not to dwell on it any longer, Midoriya opted to go reconvene with his other three classmates. They shouldn't have been too far from the area they were supposed to be in, so getting there would only take a minute. But just as he was about to make his exit, something caught his attention.

"_**~Behind you~"**_

A voice suddenly shouted to him. Actually, calling it a voice was a bit of a stretch. It was more like a signal in his brain that he could understand. The boy doesn't know what compelled him to heed it's warning, but he quickly whipped his body around and locked eyes with one of his opponents.

"Leaving so soon, Midoriya-san?" Monoma asked the boy with a smirk after finally making himself known.

Almost immediately Midoriya clenched his jaw shut to make sure that he didn't respond. Given how Shinsou's quirk work, talking was no-go. And there was no way that Monoma would've passed up on the opportunity to use an advantage like that.

"Ah, I see that you're as perceptive as the say." The blonde haired teen further taunted. "Y'know Midoriya-san, we never did finish what _you_ started back at the camp. How about we pick up where the two of us left off? You do remember what you did to me, right?"

Monoma's words were enough make Midoriya pause for a second. Did the boy still hate him for what happened back then? He's barely seen the guy since then and hasn't had a chance to apologize for his actions yet. He knew he ended up breaking a few of his ribs in his rampage, so that was more than enough reason to dislike him.

Seeing the green haired boy's face shift was the blonde haired boy's signal to make his next move. In a split second, Monoma filled his lungs with a hefty amount of air before blowing it in Midoriya's direction. Effectively trapping him in a cage of solid air.

'_This is Tsuburaba-san's quirk.'_

* * *

"Really, Tsuburaba?" Tetsutetsu deadpanned at the brunette teen. "You gave Monoma your quirk before the match?"

"You could say that." The boy smirked.

In that moment, a thought crossed Kendou's mind that didn't make too much sense. "Wait…Monoma-san's time limit is five minutes though. He should've used it up by now."

"Yes, Itsuka's right" Shiozaki agreed.

"Let's just say that Monoma is much more of a threat than he was before." Tsuburaba smirked.

Everyone turned their attention back to the main monitor to see what was going to happen next.

* * *

The bubble of solid air was nowhere near strong enough to hold the green haired boy for long. But that wasn't the point. The sole purpose of using Tsuburaba's quirk was to buy him enough time.

"Iida-san, Shinsou-san! He's over here!" The blonde teen shouted.

"**Twelve Percent Detroit Smash!"** Midoriya internally screamed before shattering his prison while activating his '_Full Cowling'_ to ten percent. The moment he broke free, that same voice from a moment ago returned.

"_**~Duck~"**_

Once again, he had no clue what compelled him to comply with the order, but the quirk inheritor quickly dropped his body to the ground. The second he looked up, Midoriya saw Monoma aim his left hand where he was previously standing. And in that moment he noticed two things. One, was that his opponent was wearing some weird looking bracelets. The second, was the orange sparks that shot out of his hands only moments before a bright orange flame erupted from his palm.

* * *

Everyone's eyes practically blew open at the sight of Monoma launching a wave of fire at Midoriya. There was only one person who's quirk could do something like that.

"What the-"

"Todoroki-kun!" Kendou looked towards the heterochromatic teen

"I don't-"

"Tsuburaba! What the hell is going on?!" Tokage half-shouted at the brunette teen.

"Like I said, Monoma's much more of a threat than he was before."

* * *

Midoriya's eyes widened in disbelief as the flames pass by his body. There was no doubt in his mind that the boy just used Todoroki's quirk. Having been on the receiving end of those flames once before, he knew it instantly. How and why he convinced the heterochromatic teen to give him his quirk was a mystery. He doubted that Todoroki gave it to him voluntarily, so he must've touched him before coming out.

Midoriya didn't get a chance to think about it any further before Monoma stomped his right foot onto the ground and sent a wave of ice at him. The quirk inheritor was able to dodge it with ease, but that voice in his head immediately came back.

"_**~Dodge right~"**_

Midoriya did as he was ordered and barely missed an armored foot to the back, courtesy of Iida. A second ago, the boy was on the other end of the street. But he somehow managed to close the distance between the two of them in the blink of an eye.

'_When did he get so fast?'_

* * *

"Since when can "Captain Rule Enforcer" move like that?!" Tokage gawked at the screen in disbelief. Every one of the 1-B students were asking themselves the same question. Sure, everyone knew that speed was the name of Iida's game. But they had never seen him move that fast before.

"To my understanding, Iida-kun has found a way to dramatically increase his speed." Yaoyorozu explained.

While a slew of murmurs broke out amongst the students on how the indigo haired teen was able to achieve this power up, Kendou shifted over to where the teachers were standing. "Yagi-sensei."

"I saw." Yagi simply said while his eyes were glued to the screen. It was only for a split second, and if you weren't watching Midoriya when it happened you would've missed it. But right before Iida missed his attack, the electricity around the boy's body flashed from green to purple.

'_Is this a new quirk?'_ Kendou wondered. Going off of what they knew, each new power came with a change in electricity.

'_If I didn't know any better, I'd say that young Izuku is using Master's …'_

* * *

Back with the trio of students, all hell broke loose. Apparently, the '_engine'_ quirk user's mobility had increased as well. Midoriya barely had a chance to dodge one attack before Iida was right on top of him again. The boy narrowly dodged a right foot to face before Monoma shouted towards his teammate.

"Iida-san, get out of the way!" He said while launching another massive wall of ice in the boy's direction. Their timing was perfect seeing as the moment he tried to move away from the attack, Iida quickly followed up with a downwards kick towards him. Everyone was in shock when the blow landed directly onto his left shoulder, knocking him to the ground.

* * *

Back with Jiro, the purple haired teen was wondering what exactly was taking Midoriya so long to return. His job was to scout ahead, see what was going on and regroup with her before heading over the other group. It wasn't like him to abandon his own plans so quickly. Evidently, the girl got her answer when she saw the massive wall of ice suddenly appear in the distance.

'_That's Shouto's ice! What the hell is going on?'_ She wondered before noticing a rumbling sound in the distance that sounded like a souped up version of Iida's quirk.

* * *

Having had enough of being left in the dark, Kendou turned her attention towards Tsuburaba and Kamakiri. It was a pretty safe assumption that the green haired teen gave Monoma his quirk as well. But him having Todoroki's quirk was still a mystery to them. "Tsuburaba-kun, care to enlighten us?"

The boy gave her a nervous look before complying. "Monoma found a way to upgrade his quirk not to long ago." He pointed back at the screen where sure enough, Monoma had sprouted three medium sized blades from the knuckles in between his fingers. "Those bracelets that he's wearing are made with strands of people's hair."

Everyone turned their attention back at the monitor to verify this information. Even though he was sprinting towards the ongoing conflict, they could clearly see four braided bands around both of his wrists. Everyone knew that all Monoma needed was to touch someone to be able to use their quirk. But they didn't know his ability was so potent that all he needed was a few strands of hair. However, something wasn't right. Three of those bracelets were accounted for, which means that someone else gave Monoma their hair to use their quirk.

"I don't remember young Todoroki being on the list of quirks that he gave us." Yagi wondered out loud towards Aizawa.

"He wasn't." The black haired man groaned out incredulously. "He's getting detention after today is over."

* * *

With the situation now unfavorable, Midoriya decided that now was the time to make his exit. He wasn't one to boost his own ego, but he was fairly confident that he could take either one of the two students by themselves. But with how much of a wild card that Monoma was right now and Iida's newfound speed, the only logical decision was to retreat and regroup.

The green haired boy powered up his '_Full Cowling'_ to twenty percent and then immediately sped off down one of the main roads. However, Iida decided to follow his lead and quickly gave chase.

With the two of them gone, Monoma returned to Shinsou's side after thawing out the right side of his body. He definitely overused Todoroki's quirk, but seeing as this was his first time really using it that was to be expected.

"Well, your plan to catch him off guard almost worked." The purple haired teen groaned out.

"Of course he was smart enough not to say anything around us, but I never expected him to have improved his reflexes as well." Monoma responded.

"Well, the guy is like a force of nature."

"Indeed." The '_copy'_ quirk user nodded. "Let's head over to where Honenuki-kun and Hagakure-chan are."

* * *

Tsunotori, Rin and Kirishima were making their way through the training grounds with a bit more caution than they should've. Midoriya was overdue to check in with them. And if the commotion they heard a second ago was any indication, then something went wrong.

"What do think is taking him so long?" Tsunotori asked the others as the group stopped in a nearby alleyway to catch their breath.

"Whoever he ran into must've been more trouble than he expected." Kirishima said.

"Juzo's probably somewhere over there then." Rin surmised.

"Well, he was the one that Midoriya told us to stay away from. From everything I've heard about him, Honenuki's pretty craf-"

***Bam!***

Kirishima was cut off when a fist collided with his face. He barely had enough time to react before he felt a second impact hit him in the gut.

"Kirishima-san!"

"What the-"

"**Light Refraction!"** Hagakure's voice suddenly shouted before Kirishima and Tsunotori were blinded by a random beam of light directly in front of them. If it wasn't for his visor, Rin probably would've fallen victim to the attack as well.

"_Damn!"_ The boy shouted in his native language as he aimed his gauntlets at where the light came from. But due to the invisible girl's quirk, he had no idea where she was.

Kirishima then activated his _'hardening'_ and quickly went on the offensive, taking up a fighting stance. The red haired teen started randomly swing at the air in hopes of landing a blow, but either Hagakure had retreated or she was just good at dodging.

"Honenuki, do it!" Her voice shouted from a fair distance away only a moment before the ground beneath their feet turned to mud.

"Shit!" Kirishima cursed once his feet were completely submerged. Luckily for them, Tsunotori recovered just in time to launch her horns and scoop her two teammates away. However, Honenuki reacted fast enough to re-solidify the ground, locking her her foot in place.

"Pony!"

"Just get out of here!" She commanded while sending the two of them further down the road where she knew Honenuki's quirk wouldn't reach.

The horned teen struggled for a bit as she tried to get herself free. But in that short span of time, Hagakure managed to get up close to her and deliver a rather powerful punch to the stomach that completely incapacitated her.

"**Pony Tsunotori can no longer continue!"**

* * *

"Fuck." Jiro cursed at the announcement. She had no clue what was going on since she was all by herself and the fact that they just went down one member of their team was not a good sign. A moment later Midoriya appeared next to her. The boy seemed out of breath, which was also concerning.

"What happened?"

"Monoma-san." He answered after taking in some air. "He found a way to use Shouto's quirk. I think he's got some new type of support items. And Iida-san has managed to increase his speed. How did Tsunotori-san get captured?"

"No clue. But whatever happened, everyone is about four hundred meters that way."

"Got it." The boy slightly rolled his shoulders before powering his quirk up again.

"Hey Izuku, I know you wanted to let everyone have a chance to show their stuff, but now might be a good time just...be you."

"Huh?"

"Y'know...be overpowered."

All Midoriya could do was laugh at his friend's words. Although the objective of this training was to win, he didn't want to overshadow his teammates more than what was necessary. Everyone was trying to prove themselves and one person steamrolling through an entire team was not the way to do it. That was his line of thinking before the match started at least. Now with Monoma and Iida, he wasn't too sure if he could even do that.

"So what's the plan?" She quirked an eyebrow at him.

Midoriya racked his brain for a moment as he tried to come up with a strategy before the lightbulb went off over his head. "Can you tell where Iida-san is?"

The girl nodded her head before plugging her earphone jack into the ground and listening out for the '_engine'_ quirk user. It took a few seconds, but she was able to identify the rumbling of his quirk in the distance along with a pair of feet moving at a high rate of speed. "He's running towards where Kirishima and the others are."

"Good."

"What are you going to do?"

"I wanted to try and deal with Shinsou-san first, but Iida-san is now the priority. Monoma-san isn't fast enough to cover that distance before either of us."

"Well, Monoma and Shinsou are moving towards that spot as well. I think they're about to try a group attack."

"Alright." He nodded before jumping off the tower and speeding off to go join the others.

* * *

Everyone is the viewing area now had their eyes glued to the screen. More than a few of them expected this match to be over in a couple minutes. But now with Monoma and Iida's new power ups, this was more of an even fight.

* * *

While making his way to where the others were, Midoriya had to come to a decision. He could either go after Iida or Monoma. If he was being honest, he was having trouble deciding who to test his luck against.

On one hand, Iida's newfound speed put him in a whole new league. Based on the little of what he's seen so far, Midoriya would say that he's even faster than Gran Torino now. He doubted that the indigo haired teen could maintain the speed for long. But he didn't really want to guess on a time limit.

On the other, Monoma somehow found a way to permanently copy quirks. The green haired boy had no clue what kind of abilities the guy now had under his belt, and he wasn't too keen on finding out without collecting more information first. As far as he knew, he still had at least one more quirk that he hadn't used yet.

It only took the quirk inheritor half a second before making his decision. Dealing with Iida took priority. Now that he had a chance to see the indigo haired teen in action he knew what to expect. The boy's speed may have caught him off guard before, but he also had the element of surprise on his side.

Midoriya stopped on some nearby pipes and took a second to listen out for the rumble of Iida's engines. '_Iida-san's recipro burst is pretty much an all or nothing power boost. Once that's run its course, he can't use it again for a while. Maybe this new skill works on the same principle.'_ He thought.

A couple of seconds later, Midoriya was able to pick up the faint sounds of a car engine not too far from where he was standing. Iida probably had been running around non-stop for the last few minutes. Which added further fuel to his time limit theory. With his objective now identified, Midoriya powered up his '_Full Cowling'_ to eighteen percent and dashed off in that direction.

Barely fifteen seconds later, Midoriya was right on top of Iida. He managed to cut him off before he could turn onto the next road and the two locked eyes for a brief second. In that moment, the quirk inheritor decided that adding a little bit of flair wouldn't hurt.

Midoriya upped his '_Full Cowling'_ to twenty-four percent, which was pushing his limit of twenty-six. While at the same time, activating '_black whip' _on both sides and letting tendrils of dark energy dance over his arms. Doing this created quite the intimidating image. '_Black whip'_, in conjunction with the violent arcing of red electricity and his hair standing on end made Midoriya look more like a villain than a hero. He was certainly going to regret putting this type of strain on his body later, but for now he would just have to take the hit.

Iida immediately felt a chill go down his spine at the sight of his classmate and quickly decided that sticking around wasn't going to be a good idea. Without a second thought, he turned on his heels and jetted off in the opposite direction.

'_I have a couple of minutes left before my engines stall. I still can't control myself at top speed but-'_ The former class rep of 1-A couldn't finish his thought before he noticed a flash of green and red out the corner of his eye. Not only had Midoriya gotten faster, but he somehow managed to close the distance between the two of them as well. Iida was so in shock that he failed to react in time to avoid Midoriya delivering a kick to the abdomen that completely knocked him on his feet.

Before the '_engine'_ quirk user could recover, Midoriya released two tendrils of '_black whip'_ around his opponent's arms and legs. The green haired boy proceeded to sprint across the training grounds and throw Iida into the cage before any of the onlookers could really process what happened.

"**Uh…Tenya Iida has been captured…."** The slightly confused voice of Kan announced over the loudspeaker.

* * *

"Midoriya's scary." Yanagi whispered out loud.

"Dude seriously." Kaminari agreed.

"Um, did anybody actually see what happened?" Shoda looked around. From their perspective, the students really hadn't seen much. The only thing they were able to make out was a cloud of dust and a trail of red lightning. Next thing they knew, Iida was inside of the cage.

"Hmm." Tokage's face shifted into a thoughtful expression.

"What's wrong?" Kendou asked.

"I was just thinking. With '_black whip'_, Wonderboy would be really good at bondage." The girl answered nonchalantly.

"Setsuna!" The now furiously blushing Kendou shouted. Completely floored by how the girl could say something like that out loud.

***Thud!***

"Oh shit! Shiozaki!" Awase barely managed to catch the girl after she fainted.

In that back of the group, Midnight was doing her best to stifle a fit of laughter. Even though the entire exchange was hilarious in her opinion, she had no idea where her niece got her lewd tendencies from. It was a complete mystery to her.

* * *

With Iida now out of the way, Midoriya made a beeline for where Rin and Kirishima were supposed to be. He doubted that they could've gone far from here Jiro told him that they were. And with Honenuki floating around, they were definitely at a disadvantage.

It didn't take long for him to get to the area. Along the way he saw a few of Tsunotori's horns scattered across the road. He surmised that she must've used them to help the others escape before getting taken out. Or they got into a battle with Monoma or Honenuki.

"Midoriya-kun!" Rin shouted from just below, catching his attention. The green haired teen descended into the alleyway where the boy was hiding out before coming face to face with Kirishima.

"What happened?" The boy asked.

"Honenuki caught Tsunotori. She used her horns to get us away from him and Hagakure." The redhead answered.

"Where are they no-" Midoriya was cut off by a large wall of ice suddenly appearing along the road. If it wasn't for the fact that they were in an alleyway they would've been hit with the attack.

"Kirishima-san, it isn't very _manly_ to hide out in some alley is it? What would Bakugou-san think if he were here right now? I'm sure he'd be disappointed." Monoma taunted from closer than either of them would've liked.

Completely forgetting about the fact that Shinsou was on their team, Kirishima was about to respond. But Midoriya managed to slap his hand over his mouth to keep him quiet. '_I'll have to admit, Monoma-san sure knows the right thing to say.'_

After a few seconds without a response, Monoma signaled over to Honenuki who used his quirk to turn the ice into water. This was more than enough to flood the alleyway that the three boys were in. Without a second thought, Midoriya grabbed his two teammates and jumped to the top of a nearby building that was surrounded by large, metal pipes.

"I'll head down there and distract them." The boy commanded. "Rin-san, when you see an opening, use your scales to lay down some fire and try to incapacitate one of them, try and aim for Juzo. Kirishima-san, you might be the only one that can take the full force of Monoma-san's attacks. I don't know what other quirks he has, so be careful."

"Got it."

Without a second thought, the two boys jumped off the roof and onto the road. Kirishima was able to avoid injury by activating his quirk before the leap.

Immediately, Honenuki softened the ground in between them to create a barrier. However, that wasn't going to stop Midoriya. In response, the boy raised his left arm and shot off a "Delaware Smash". But Monoma was able to erect in ice wall in time.

'_Phew, that was clos_-' Monoma didn't get a chance to finish his thought before feeling a gust of wind at his back. The boy turned his head just in time to see Midoriya rearing back his left arm in preparation. The blonde haired teen braced himself for the impending impact, however….

"Izuku, I love you!"

…

…

…

"Wha-" The green haired teen responded to the sound of Kendou's voice. Unfortunately for him, that was more than enough to fall victim the Shinsou's quirk. In an instant, his entire body locked up and his brain felt as if someone just dunked it into a pot of cold water.

"Midoriya!" Kirishima shouted. Due to all of the ice in front of him, he couldn't see what just happened. Instead of his teammate's voice, what he got was a torrent of flames coming his way. The red haired teen tensed his body up a split second before the fire made contact. Monoma decided to lay on the heat for a few seconds to keep the boy occupied.

The attack however, only served as a distraction. Without Kirishima's knowledge, Honenuki had activated his softening. By the time he realized what was going on, it was already too late. Kirishima was submerged all the way to his waist before the lipless teen re-solidified the ground.

"**Ejiro Kirishima has been captured!"**

* * *

Back at the monitoring area, there was a mixture of reactions. Team 5 just took the lead, and a pretty big one. Tsunotori and Kirishima were completely out, Rin was now all alone and Midoriya had fallen victim to Shinsou's brainwashing. However, that last detail was what Tokage was enjoying the most.

"Oh shit! That was gold!" The green haired girl said through a few tears. "I can't believe Wonderboy fell for that!" She continued as she grabbed Kendou by the shoulder. The orange haired teen was now blushing furiously while trying to hide her shame.

"How ya' feeling right about now, Itsuka?"

"Shut up…."

"Oh come on! You can't tell me that wasn't brilliant."

"I will chop you…."

"Pfft!"

Everyone heard it. It was hard not to. She doesn't really understand how Shinsou was able to mimic her voice. She had a feeling the mask that he was wearing had something to do with it. But those questions could be saved for later. All she wanted to do now was crawl into a hole somewhere and disappear due to the sheer embarrassment of this whole situation.

"Alright, I'm gonna call it." Kan said while reaching for the microphone.

"Hold on." Aizawa placed his hand over the loudspeaker button. "This is something I've actually talked to him about, it's one of the drawbacks to his quirk. Moving a villain too much will break his brainwashing. I want to see what he decides when faced in a situation like this.

"Alright, he's your project child after all."

* * *

"Thank you, Shinsou-san. A second later and I would've been toast." Monoma breathed a sigh a relief.

"I still can't believe that actually worked." Honenuki chuckled as he walked over to now brainwashed boy. The lipless teen looked him up and down before reaching his hand out.

"Don't" Shinsou blurted out.

"What?"

"If you move him around too much then it could break my quirk's hold on him."

"Seriously?" Monoma raised an eyebrow at the purple haired teen. This was certainly a problem.

"We can still make him follow your commands, right?"

"Let's see." Shinsou said before turning towards the green haired teen and smirking. "Midoriya, go capture your teammate and then come back down here." He pointed to Rin who was still on the roof of the building.

Without a moment of hesitation, Midoriya dashed forward. In the blink of an eye, he managed to scale the building and put himself right in front of his black haired teammate. Rin didn't even get the chance to put his guard up before a coil of '_black whip'_ wrapped itself around his body.

Just as quickly as he disappeared, Midoriya returned to Shinsou and the others with Rin in tow.

"Excellent!" Monoma practically cheered at the sight before him. "All that leaves now is Jiro-san."

"Let's not count our chickens before they hatch. We should hurry up an-" Honenuki was cut off by a massive gust of wind.

* * *

_~Dream Realm~_

Once again, Midoriya found himself in the void. Although this wasn't his first time there, something about this moment felt different from the last two. He couldn't really describe it, but something was off.

"Well...you certainly walked right into that one." A familiar female voice caught his attention. The quirk inheritor turned his body around only to be met with the smiling face of a certain black haired woman.

"Nana Shimura!" Midoriya shouted out before placing his hands over his mouth. "I can talk?!"

"Looks like it, Izuku Midoriya." She answered him with a smile.

"What...how...w-what is this place? How did I get here?"

The black haired woman tapped a finger to her chin as she tried to find the right words. "I guess the easiest way to say this would be that we're inside 'One for All' or inside your mind. As to how you got here, well that's actually pretty funny. That kid with the brainwashing quirk tricked you by using your girlfriend's voice."

"What do you mean we're inside 'One for All'? How is that possible? This doesn't make any se-"

"Slow down kid, geez." She placed a gloved hand of his mouth. "Look we don't have a lot of time seeing as your opponents are discussing how best to use your body, so let's get right down to business."

"What business?"

"Think about it, young Izuku. What happened the last time you came into contact with a past user of 'One for All'?"

"It was after I manifested '_black whip'_ after Spectrum used his quirk on me."

"Correct!"

"Wait a second…." The realization finally hit him after a couple of seconds. "Are you-"

"Yes, you're finally ready for my quirk. Although technically you've been using part of it for a while now." She explained.

"What do you mean?"

"My quirk is '_danger sense'_. Essentially...it's a type of sixth sense that alerts you when a threat is nearby. It's pretty simple, but it's definitely useful. Like I said, you've been using it for a while now."

"How? The only quirk I've been able to manifest so far is '_black whip'_."

"Ever since the incident back at that camp, you've had times where you would experience this weird buzzing in the back of your head, right? And you've been experiencing headaches lately?"

"Yeah…" He shook his head.

"That's my quirk. That buzzing is alerting you to a nearby danger. The headaches use to happen to me when I was a kid, I think it was just me getting used to my power."

"What the hell…" The green haired boy began rubbing his temple with his usable hand.

"Like I told you the last time we spoke, our connection has been corrupted. You activated my power shortly after '_black whip'_ but for some reason the "signal" was incomplete. And I'm here to fix that!"

"How do you-"

Before he had a chance to complete his sentence, the elder 'One for All' user quite literally shoved her hand inside of what was supposed to be his chest. For a good few seconds, Midoriya felt a surge of power rush through every muscle fiber in his nonexistent body. But that sensation vanished just as quickly as it came.

"There, that should do it!" Shimura smiled triumphantly after removing her hand. "Congratulations kid, you just became even more overpowered than you were a few minutes ago."

"I don't...feel any different."

"Oh, you will." She smirked. "Now, let's go ahead and break this brainwashing quirk's hold on you and get you back out there."

"How? I'm not in control of my body right now, right?"

"You're right, _you're_ not in control. But that doesn't mean that _I_ can't do anything about it."

"W-what are you going to do?" He asked, genuinely curious as to what kind of technique his predecessor was going to use.

"I'm pretty sure I can activate 'One for All' from inside here. I'm going to try and force some power into your body and that should break his hold."

"Are you sure that's going to work?"

"Not in the slightest." The woman shrugged comedically. "Hey, what's that look for? At least I'm doing something."

"I'm s-sorry, Shimura-san." He quickly apologized.

"Hey, you can just call me Nana."

"Okay."

"This will probably be the last time we speak to one another for a while, so let me give you some advice. Try not to bear the weight of the world on your shoulders alone. I looked through your memories and can see how badly that affected Toshinori. The 'Symbol of Peace' may have been a good idea, but it was never going to work out in the long run. A building can't stand on one pillar after all."

Midoriya held his tongue as he processed her words. Of all the things that she could've told him, he certainly wasn't expecting that. The woman practically raised the 'Symbol of Peace' herself.

"Alright, here goes something! Oh, and say hello to Toshinori for me." Shimura snapped her fingers after giving the boy a wave.

* * *

The force of the wind was enough to blow everyone back and knock them off their feet. Once the dust settled, the members of Team 5 looked up to see Midoriya standing beside a now freed Rin.

"What th-" was all that Monoma was able to let out before Midoriya activated his '_Full Cowling'_ and dashed towards him. The last thing the '_copy'_ quirk user felt before losing consciousness was powerful force hit him in the stomach.

Honenuki was next on pecking order. The lipless teen didn't even get a chance to stand up before a tendril of '_black whip'_ was wrapped around his body. He tried to soften the ground below his feet, but Midoriya used his quirk to lift his body up. Without contact, he couldn't active his powers.

'_I'm glad I was able to catch him off guard.'_ Midoriya thought before racing down the street. A few seconds later and Honenuki would've had more than enough time to activate his quirk and sink into the ground.

After finally regaining his wits, Rin stood up and aimed his hands at Shinsou as he fired off some of his scales at the boy. Unfortunately for him, the hero course hopeful recovered just in time to dodge it. The two continued their game of cat and mouse for a few seconds until the voice of Kan interrupted them.

"**Juzo Honenuki has been captured and Neito Monoma is unable to continue!"**

'_Dammit!'_ Shinsou cursed inside of his mind. The three strongest members of their team were now done for and he had no clue if Hagakure was still in the area. Something wasn't right, Midoriya had somehow activated his quirk while under his control. When under the influence of his quirk, you're not even supposed to be able to think for yourself. Let alone use your quirk.

Shinsou was brought out of his thoughts when he felt a gust of wind at his back. The '_brainwashing'_ quirk user turned around and was met with the intense glare of Midoriya. In a last ditch attempt at getting the upper hand, Shinsou tried deploying his capture weapon. It proved to be futile though as Midoriya delivered a devastating gut punch that knocked him out before he hit the ground.

"**Hitoshi Shinsou is able to continue!"**

'_And that makes four.'_ Midoriya thought to himself as he made his way over to Rin.

"Man, I'm lucky that I've never had to go up against you in a fight." The '_scale'_ quirk user joked.

"All that's left is Hagakure-san."

"To be honest, I don't think finding her will be that easy." Rin thought out loud. He had a point though. For all they knew, Hagakure could've been right in front of them. Trying to find someone that they couldn't see was definitely a problem. Truthfully, out of everyone in Team 5, the invisible girl was the hardest to capture. The quirk inheritor thought about what to do for a moment before slapping himself on the forehead.

"What is it?" Rin asked.

"Something I should've thought about before we started." Midoriya replied before powering up his quirk. In a flash of green electricity, the boy transported Rin back to the top of the nearby building before heading off. "I'll be right back."

* * *

Back at the top of the tower, Jiro was patiently tapping her foot while she waited. In truth, the purple haired teen was bored out of her mind. After hearing that three members of Team 5 were taken out within seconds of each other, she felt safe in assuming that the match was almost over. Luckily for her, a certain green haired boy with a broken ability came to her rescue.

"You look like you're having fun." Midoriya joked after setting foot on the tower.

"What took you so long?"

"I almost got captured."

"What? How?" Jiro gawked at him in disbelief.

Midoriya's face flushed and he started rubbing the back of his head. "It's k-kind of embarrassing. Let's just say that Shinsou-san is craftier than I expected."

"So what now?"

"We need your help finding Hagakure-san." He explained before grabbing the girl by her waist.

"Oh, alright." The girl replied before hopping on his back. Much like she did at the start of the match.

"Hold your breath." Midoriya simply said.

"Why-" Jiro was cut off when Midoriya dashed off back to where he left Rin. In a matter of seconds, they returned to their black haired classmate. The boy would be lying if he said that he almost failed to hold back a laugh after seeing Jiro nearly drop to the ground after hopping off his classmate's back.

"Izuku...I hate you." The girl groaned out as she tried to recollect her balance.

"S-sorry." He clasped his hands together and gave a slight bow.

After holding back her vomit and fixing her hair, Jiro plugged her quirk into the ground and began listening out. She held her concentration for a few seconds before detaching her earphone jack at looking at her teammates.

"I have no idea where she is." The girl shrugged.

"Seriously?"

"How?"

"If she was walking around within my range, I would be able to hear her footsteps. So either she's outside of that, or she's found a way to mask her presence."

"So what do we do?" Rin looked to the unofficial team captain.

"There's nothing that we can do." He replied. "Trying to find someone who's invisible in this place is like trying to find a needle in a haystack. We could very well spend the rest of the day trying to find her."

"So...we just wait?" Jiro asked.

And wait is exactly what they did. For the next five minutes, Team 1 stood patiently in that same spot until Kan called finally called the match. With neither team able to make a move, the teachers declared Midoriya's groups the winners due to them having more members still in play.

On their way back after finally freeing Tsunotori and Kirishima, they ended up running into Hagakure who was hiding out under some pipes about five hundred meters away. Jiro asked the invisible girl how she was able to avoid her detection, to which she revealed that she was wearing special sound absorbing shoes.

* * *

"Well...that was anticlimactic as hell." Tetsutetsu said what everyone else seemed to be thinking.

"No kidding." Kamakiri agreed.

"Since we're probably not gonna get a chance to see it…" Kendou turned to Tsuburaba. "What other quirk does Monoma-san have?"

"Oh, it's Uraraka's" He replied, earning a few surprised looks

"Really?!"

"How the hell did he convince Ochako to give him some of her hair?" Tokage inquired.

"He paid her…." Was the reply.

A few other students were about to comment on that little nugget of information before Aizawa drew everyone's attention. "Save it for after training is over with. The next match up is Team 4 versus Team 7."

* * *

The rest of the day pretty much went off without a hitch after that. Team 4 ended up getting a flawless 5-0 victory after Tokage and Shoda combined their quirks together to knock out everyone on the opposing team. And Team 6 narrowly managed to defeat Team 8 after a rather amazing battle of willpower between Todoroki and Tetsutetsu that ended up causing way too much property damage for the teacher's liking.

After all the matches were complete, the students of 1-B were told to head back to class and wait for their teacher to show up.

"I still think we got lucky. If Momo-chan and Kaminari-kun didn't finish the trap in time, we probably would've lost." Kendou said as her and Midoriya walked into the classroom.

"Well, at least you actually managed to win your match. I honestly feel like I can't chalk this up as a win for my team. We lost two people too." Midoriya responded while taking his seat.

"Well, you can't win them all." She grinned at him. "Hagakure-san's quirk is-"

Kendo was cut off by a very loud farting noise coming from her seat the moment she sat down in her desk. Everything in the room came to a screeching halt and nineteen pairs of eyes locked onto her. The orange haired teen felt her entire body heat up from the sheer embarrassment of the situation before quickly standing back up and looking down at her chair. Sure enough, there was a whoopie cushion that she somehow didn't see right in the middle of it.

"Damn Itsuka, what did you have for breakfast?!" Tokage said while laughing and clutching her sides. The '_lizard tail splitter'_ user was nearly on the verge of passing out due to the lack of oxygen to her lungs.

'_Oh, she's gonna pay for this.'_

(Tokage 2 - 1 Kendou)

* * *

**Author's Notes: This is officially the longest chapter that I have ever written. I honestly feel like I bit off more than I could chew with this one. But I wanted to make sure that everyone had a moment. On top of that, there were a couple of scenes that I didn't plan on having before actually writing out the chapter. Sorry if you guys don't like super long chapters, but I didn't feel like splitting it up into two parts.**

**1\. I'm gonna be honest with you guys, even when I was doing the outline for this chapter I had no clue how they were going to capture Hagakure. I originally had planned on her and Jiro having a confrontation, but that was going to involve Hagakure "coincidently" being in range of her hearing. Or she was going to try and get the drop on Midoriya (Which would've been a bad idea).**

**2\. I originally planned this power up for Monoma when I was writing "Eavesdropping", but I never had a chance to put into the story. I double checked, and all Monoma needs to copy a quirk is a few strands of hair. I feel like this is a very reasonable way for him to upgrade his powers. Let me know what you guys think, because I might use this in my next fic.**

**-2A: For those of you who are wondering how he got his hands on Todoroki's quirk. Let's just say that Monoma may or may not have been digging through certain people's trash in hopes of finding a few stray hairs.**

**3\. The long awaited confrontation of Midoriya and Kirishima is coming next chapter. I decided to push that interaction over because I feel like Kirishima is mature enough to put his own personal bullshit to the side for training. How do you guys think that conversation is going to go?**

**4\. How do you guys like Midoriya's new quirk? There aren't a lot of fight scenes left in this fic. However, I have a few ideas on how it's going to come in handy with everyday life.**

**Like always, thanks for reading and don't be afraid to drop a review.**


	47. Cool Down

Following their joint training session, the teachers informed the first year students that they had the next day off from class. Kendou and Uraraka thought it would be a good idea for their classes to come together for a bit of an impromptu party in the 1-B dorm so that everyone could mingle for a bit and unwind.

Kendou and Tokage decided to use some of the leftover money from the _"Hero Students for Hire"_ event to order pizza, drinks and snacks for everyone to enjoy. While Satou took it upon himself to make a few baked goods.

It didn't take long for the students to get into the swing of things and branch off into their own groups. Most everyone was just casually conversing with their friends while Yanagi was racking up a rather impressive undefeated streak in the video game tournament. Something that Kaminari was determined to break, even if it killed him.

"Look Izuku, all we're saying is that if we form an alliance we could be an unstoppable force of the night." Tokoyami exclaimed with a few out-of-character hand motions.

"Fumikage-kun is correct. The aesthetic is almost complete as well. All we need to do is change the color of that arm brace of yours and the transformation would be complete." Kuroiro added on.

"All you need do is to simply embrace the darkness within you."

"C'mon guys, i-isn't it a bit early for us to be thinking about stuff like this?" Midoriya asked after a deep sigh.

The two darkness quirk users had spent the last few minutes trying to convince the green haired boy to form a hero team with them in the future. He can only assume that his growing mastery over '_black whip'_ is what inspired this conversation in the first place. Of course, Midoriya had no problem entertaining the idea seeing as Tokoyami was a good friend of his. But when they suggested that he dye his hair black is when he stopped listening.

The strange thing however, is that the two of them had made some very valid points. Which means they obviously put some thought into this and may have practiced their sales pitch beforehand.

"Alright guys, it's been five minutes. Can I have my boyfriend back now?" An orange haired angel came to the boy's rescue.

"Of course." Tokoyami agreed.

"Our business has not concluded." Kuroiro told the boy with a stern look on his face.

The quirk inheritor wasted no time in standing up and moving away from the table to rejoin his other group of friends at one of the other dining tables.

"Thank you." Midoriya smiled at Kendou. "Another few minutes of that and I might have caved."

"Make it up to me later." She returned the gesture while grabbing his hand and interlocking their fingers.

"...and that's why my parents stopped letting me and my sister eat carrots!" Tokage proudly said to a red faced Jiro, mortified looking Shiozaki and confused Todoroki. Evidently, the young couple came just in time to hear the tail end of what seemed to be a very riveting story.

"Hey, what are you guys-"

"Don't ask." Jiro cut Kendou off while pinching the bridge of her nose. The orange haired then teen took a second to look over to the '_vine'_ quirk user who seemed to have completely shut down. On second thought, she probably didn't want to know what her questionable choice of a best friend was talking about.

Somehow, the group of six managed to have a normal conversation with only a minimal amount of Tokage's failed attempts at flirting with Todoroki. Everything was going great until a certain red haired teenager approached them. His face somewhat of a mixture between dubious and unsettled.

"Hey Midoriya, do you mind if we talk for a minute?" Kirishima asked in a bit of a shaky tone.

Jiro was the first one to answer. "We're kind of in the middle of a conversation." The rocker teen still hadn't forgiven him for that day in the hospital. And after hearing that the boy was quick to blame her best friend for Bakugou being expelled, it didn't exactly elevate her opinion of him.

"Yeah...sure." Midoriya agreed, earning a couple of surprised looks from everyone except Tokage and Shiozaki.

Without so much as a word, the two boys made their way out the front door to have their conversation. Leaving the rest of group curious about what that particular interaction was going to bring.

"That probably won't end well." Todoroki stated.

"What's up with that?" Tokage inquired.

"Yes, Kirishima-san seemed rather distressed." Shiozaki added on.

Kendou was about to say something to quell her friend's ever growing curiosity. However, another student decided to cut in and make herself known.

"E-excuse me, Itsuka-chan." Yaoyorozu said to the girl. The raven haired teen also seemed rather uneasy about something. Which was a stark contrast from her usually elegant and confident demeanor. "Do you have a moment to talk?"

"Yeah sure." The girl agreed before the two of them made their way up to Kendou's bedroom for some privacy.

"What's eatin' her?" Tokage looked her heterochromatic classmate.

"No idea."

* * *

Barely a couple of minutes later, the two girls were inside of Kendou's room. It was hard not to notice the anxious look plastered on Yaoyorozu's face. But Kendou assumed it must've been part of the reason why they were having this conversation. "So, what did you want to talk about?"

"A-actually, I wanted to ask you a question about Midoriya-san." The '_creation'_ quirk user responded.

"Okay?" The orange haired teen slightly tilted her head

"I know this is going to sound odd, b-but uh...does Midoriya-san not like me because of my quirk?"

"Huh?" The sound escaped Kendou's mouth before she could stop herself. Of all the things that she was expecting to hear, that certainly wasn't on the list.

"I know this is out of left field, but ever since Toru-chan showed our class that video...it seemed to make a lot of sense. Also, I remember that time when we were doing our internship with Uwabamai-san and he seemed pretty sour about the whole thing."

Kendou paused for a second before answering. She herself knew that her boyfriend had developed a bit of a sore spot when it came to certain types of quirks. Considering his upbringing it wasn't exactly surprising. People with powerful and flashy quirks tended to not be the most pleasant of people to hang around after all. She was positive that his feelings about it has lessened recently, but they never exactly discussed the topic before.

"I hope you don't mind me asking Momo-chan, but why do you care?"

"Well um...I wanted to apologize to him for the way I acted towards him at the start of the year. But if he doesn't want to talk to me because of my quirk the-"

"Look, I'm gonna stop you right there." Kendou was quick to cut the girl off. "I haven't really talked to Izuku about it before, but he's not someone who'll just ignore you because of your quirk. It would be hypocritical of him. And if he still had a problem with that, he wouldn't be friends with Todoroki-kun, Tokoyami-kun, Ibara or Setsuna."

"I guess you're right."

"What do you need to apologize for anyway?"

"Honestly, I've actually been rather jealous of him since school started." Yaoyorozu admitted with a slight blush on her cheeks.

"Why?"

That was definitely the million dollar question. If anything it should've been the other way around. Yaoyorozu pretty much had everything a person could want. She was beautiful, smart, came from a wealthy family and had an amazing quirk that could make her even more rich than what she already was.

"He's pretty much everything that I'm not. I may have higher grades, but when it comes to everything else he was just so far ahead of me that it was...discouraging. After we found out that he was a recommended student as well, it just made it seem like the gap was even bigger. I know it seems really petty but-"

"No, I understand."

"Really?"

"Yeah." Kendou smiled at the girl. "Izuku's pretty much the top student in our class. Even I find myself a bit jealous of how easily he's able to handle things sometimes. But, he also works really hard and that's what you should be focusing on."

"Yes, that's right."

Suddenly, the tone of the conversation shifted. "Hey Momo-chan, are you alright?"

"I'm sorry?"

"Like in general? You seem like you're a bit down in the dumps. I know we don't really talk a whole lot, but you're still one of my friends. And this morning it seemed like something was bothering you."

Yaoyorozu opened her mouth but quickly closed it to figure out how to word her response. But after a few seconds of that, she decided to just say what was on her mind. "To be honest...I haven't been feeling quite up to par lately."

"You wanna talk about it?"

"I don't want to bother you with my problems."

"You're not, trust me. Just tell me what's got you feeling so blue."

"It's just, I've been falling behind lately and...it's starting to get to me. I barely passed our end of semester exam. And after our failed rescue attempt, I've pretty much had to sit on the sidelines while everyone keeps getting ahead of me. Granted, Aizawa-sensei told us that we'll be able to take the next provisional license exam but I don't think I'll be able to handle the practical portions very well. Especially if it comes to fighting."

"Well, if you're not feeling confident about it why don't you just join me and Izuku during some of our sparring sessions until the exam?" Kendou offered seemingly out of nowhere. Something like that would definitely help the girl out if she was having issues with the physical portions of the exam.

"I couldn't, it seems like it'd be intruding on your personal time."

"Not at all. The two of us sleep in the same bed, it's not like having an extra person during our training would mess anything up." Kendou chuckled.

The raven haired teen's eyes blew open and her face flushed after hearing that. And it only took a few seconds for Kendou to realize what she said.

"J-j-just forget you ever heard me say that. Please…"

"Y-yes, of course."

"Plus it'll give you a chance to talk to Izuku if you still want to. Honestly, the best way to clear the air is to talk to him directly."

"I see." She nodded in response. "In that case, I would love to join you two in your training sessions."

"Sweet."

"Also um...I wanted to apologize to you as well."

"For what?" Last time she checked, Yaoyorozu hadn't offended her in any way that she could remember. Or...at all.

"Back when we did our internships, I said that you could do much better than him when Uwabami-san teased you about it. I realize now that my comment was incredibly rude and I fully intend to apologize to him about it as well. But, I feel as though I owe you an apology as well."

"Hey, don't worry about it. Izuku was kind of an ass at the start of the year, so I don't really blame you for thinking that way." The '_big fist'_ user waved off.

"Well, I'm not going to disagree with you there." Yaoyorozu gave a slight chuckle.

"Anyways, we should get back out there. It is a party after all."

"Yes!"

* * *

While the two girls were wrapping up their conversation and rejoining the party, Midoriya and Kirishima had made their way outside. The '_hardening'_ quirk user led them a short walk away from the dorm to keep away from prying ears and eyes.

Midoriya had a pretty good idea about what the boy wanted to talk to him about, and in truth it was a conversation that did not feel like having. He didn't really harbor any negative feelings towards the boy, but he wasn't too sure about the other way around.

"Look Kirishima-san, if you wanted to talk to me about Bakugou then we might as well end this conversation right now. I'm honestly not in the mood to talk about it." Midoriya told him while stopping his feet.

"Look man, I'm sorry...but I just really need to know if everything that was said on that video was true."

"Why don't you just ask your friend?"

"I've tried calling and texting him, but he never responds. I even went over to his house but his mom said he didn't want to talk to me." The redhead responded with a sullen voice.

"Well then, I guess you ha-"

"Were things really that bad between you two?"

Midoriya paused for a moment before letting out a heavy sigh. Something in the back of his mind was telling him that if he didn't deal with this now, it would definitely come up again later. He was honestly tired of people talking to him about his former classmate. For some reason, it felt like everyone was under the impression that Bakugou was his responsibility for some reason.

"Yes, they were." He finally answered. "Kirishima-san, I spent my entire childhood getting bullied by that guy simply because I hadn't manifested my quirk yet and still wanted to be a hero. I can't even count how many times he blew up my stuff or beat me up just for breathing the same air as him."

"If that was true, then why didn't you ever tell anyone?"

"I did, plenty of times." Midoriya said before his expression darkened. "But no matter what, nobody wanted to listen to the quirkless kid. And no one wanted to ruin Bakugou's chances of becoming a hero. That kind of thing happens when people are born with powerful quirks. They get to be as nasty as they want, and pick on those who they think are beneath them."

"Still, that's just-"

"Honestly Kirishima-san, I completely understand why you like the guy so much."

"What?"

"You value "manliness" over everything else. This is just an assumption, but you probably admired Bakugou so much for how _manly_ and _cool_ he was that you pretty much just ignored how much of an asshole he was."

Kirishima held his tongue for a second before responding. "I...I honestly thought that he was just blowing hot air."

"As long as we're being honest, I was the same way growing up. I used to look up to him so much that I completely let him use me as a doormat. It was only after I got hurt that I finally started to realize that the way he acted wasn't okay. But back then I was just a stupid kid." Midoriya then gazed sharply at the redhead. "You on the other hand, you had front row seats to how he treated people and just did nothing about it."

"So what? Are you saying that I'm just as bad as he was?"

"No, not at all."

A silence befell the two for a good fifteen seconds before Kirishima spoke up once again.

"Look Midoriya, I just wanted to come get your side of the story. It's just really hard to think that someone who wants to be a hero would do something so unman- terrible like bully someone so bad that they…." The redhead couldn't bring himself to finish that sentence.

"Well, this is the same guy that tells people that he'll kill them every two minutes."

Kirishima had a hard time telling of that was a joke or just sarcasm. But Midoriya did have a point. He did admire Bakugou simply because he thought that the '_explosion'_ quirk user was the kind of person that he wanted to be. Bakugou's fierceness and aptitude was something inspired him to keep improving.

"For what it's worth, I'm actually kind of jealous of you." Midoriya quickly followed up.

"How?"

"I tried for years to be his friend and all I got was an explosion to the face. You somehow made him respect you and even treat you like a decent human being. Then again, he's hated me for years and with the way you boast about being strong and manly it makes sense."

An awkward silence fell over the two again before Midoriya decided that now was a good stopping point for their chat. Although he didn't exactly feel too good about what he said to the guy, it was better to get it out way now instead of dealing with it later.

"Alright well, I don't really see a point in us continuing this conversation." The green haired boy said as he began walking away to rejoin the others.

"Midoriya, hold on." The '_hardening'_ quirk user called out. "For what I said back at the hospital, I'm sorry. I wasn't really thinking straight and it was really uncalled for."

"Don't worry about it."

With that, Midoriya made his way back inside and enjoyed himself for the rest of the night.

* * *

_~Ultimate Date Group Created~_

_~Izuku Midoriya, Kyoka Jiro, Fumikage Tokoyami, Shouto Todoroki, Ibara Shiozaki, Tetsutetsu Tetsutetsu, Kinoko Komori and Rayet Yamanaka have joined the chat.~_

T-Rex: I'm sure you're all wondering why I've gathered you here today.

Dumbbell: Do you have any idea what time it is?

T-Rex: It's before 2300, you'll be alright.

Microphone: What the hell is going on now?

Mushroom: Uh, who's Rayet Yamanaka?

Sunflower: I'm a friend of Midoriya-kun and Jiro-chan.

Sunflower: It's nice to meet you all!

Cross: You as well.

Microphone: Her family owns the flower shop that did all the arrangements for the cultural festival. And we all went to middle school together.

Raven: It a pleasure to make your acquaintance.

Cross: Yamanaka-san, I absolutely adored the display that your shop put together for our school! Your family is truly blessed with such a wonderful talent.

Sunflower: Thank you.

Yin-Yang: So is there a reason for all of this?

T-Rex: Yes there is! All of us are going to help Wonderboy plan out a date night for him and Itsuka.

All Might: I knew asking you for help was a bad idea.

Mushroom: Really? This is awesome!

Dumbbell: I'm in! You guys keep leaving me out of stuff like this.

Cross: I'd be glad to help.

Yin-Yang: Okay.

Sunflower: You guys seem like a bunch of nice people.

Microphone: I have a feeling that Setsuna has some ulterior motive with all of this, but I'll play along.

Cross: Why isn't Itsuka in the chat?

T-Rex: Because it's going to be a surprise.

Raven: Is there a date set?

T-Rex: This Saturday.

All Might: Really?!

Mushroom: That's really not a lot of time.

Dumbbell: Komori's right.

T-Rex: Which is why we need to get our shit together and make it happen.

All Might: She didn't clear any of this with me beforehand, btw.

Yin-Yang: I wouldn't doubt it. Tokage seems like the controlling type.

T-Rex: Damn Todoroki, can I get some ice for that burn you just gave me?

Yin-Yang: I apologize. I'll be over to your dorm shortly and make some.

Yin-Yang: However, burn ointment or butter would be a better alternative.

Microphone: Shouto it was a joke! Do not come over here!

T-Rex: Cockblock…

Cross: Setsuna!

Sunflower: Is this how you guys interact all the time?

Dumbbell: Pretty much.

Mushroom: Yup!

All Might: Unfortunately….

Microphone: This is actually pretty tame compared to our usual conversations.

T-Rex: Alright back on topic. Me an Wonderboy already have a rough plan in place, but I wanted to clear it with you guys before putting into action.

All Might: We do?

T-Rex: Yes, we talked about it the other day.

Dumbbell: Care to fill us in?

* * *

"Well Izuku-kun, it looks like everything is going well for you. I'd say that you're doing much better than a few months ago."

"I'd like to think so ma'am." Midoriya responded to the woman after finally sitting up from his position on the sofa.

Dianna Lance, a retired American hero formerly known as "Songbird".

A blonde haired, blue eyed woman with a quirk similar to that of Present Mic's. After suffering a severe injury to her throat and neck a few years ago, she made the transition from pro hero to hero psychiatrist. Apparently she had a few run-ins with Yagi during his time in the U.S. and the two still kept in touch even after his return home.

Her husband is the owner of a pretty big tech conglomerate in the U.S.. And after the company opened up a new branch in Japan, the woman decided to move here to get a fresh start. Not too long after, she got back in contact with the former number one hero which led to her and Midoriya becoming well acquainted.

"And Recovery Girl has informed me that she's decided to decrease the frequency of your weekly check ups to only once a month."

"Yes."

"Good." The American woman smiled at him. "I'm glad to see that you're making progress."

"Me too."

The woman scribbled down a few more notes on her notepad before putting everything away. "Also…a little birdie told me that you have a girlfriend now. Would it happen to be the same young lady that you did that photoshoot with?" Lance leaned in with a curious smirk.

Midoriya's face reddened as he fumbled his way through a response. Even though it was a psychiatrist's job to delve into your personal life, it still felt a bit awkward having the woman bring it up.

"I apologize if that made you uncomfortable, Izuku-kun."

"It's fine. No harm done."

"It's good to see that you're engaging in those types of relationships. It shows that you're making leaps and bounds when it comes to social interactions. Around this time last year, I doubt that you've been so willing to do something like that."

"Yes, you're right about that. I've been making more of an effort at talking to my classmates and trying to apologize to everyone for the way that I acted when school started. It's still a bit of a struggle, but I think I'm moving in the right direction."

"Well progress takes time. No one expects you to turn into a social butterfly overnight. But as long as you're making an effort without straining yourself then I have no doubt that you'll be okay." The woman smiled at him once more. It was always interesting to Midoriya how a woman who at one point could shatter every piece of glass on a skyscraper could also have such a calming effect on him.

"Well, that's all that we have time for today, Izuku-kun. I look forward to our next meeting."

"Me too, thank you ma'am. Have a wonderful day." The boy gave one final bow and a handshake before exiting the office.

* * *

Following his monthly meeting, Midoriya returned to the dorms feeling rather refreshed. He always felt like a weight had been lifted off of his chest after his monthly counseling sessions. The quirk inheritor was getting ready to head out for an afternoon jog before a random knock came to his door. To his surprise, Kendou was the one who decided to drop by unannounced.

"Itsuka?"

"Hey, sorry for not texting ahead. Can I talk to you for a minute?" She asked.

"Yeah, sure."

The orange haired teen made her way inside and quickly sat down on his bed. Apart of her still felt it was a bit strange that she could practically make herself at home in a room that wasn't her's. "How was your session with Dr. Lance?"

"It was good."

"Good"

"So what's up?"

"Do you have plans this Saturday?" She asked a bit anxiously.

"I-I u-um…." Midoriya hesitated while he tried to work up the nerve to answer her. "A-actually, there was something that I was planning on doing that I wanted to talk to you about."

"Oh really?" She arched an eyebrow at him. "What is it?"

"You go first, it's probably more important."

"Okay." Kendou nodded before continuing. "So, my sensei at the dojo that I used to go to is gonna be short handed this Saturday and she asked me if I could go over and help her with her introductory class. And I was wondering if you wanted to tag along and help out."

"Really?" His face failing to hide the confusion he was feeling.

"Yeah, it's only for the morning."

"I don't really think I'm qualified for something like that. I mean, you're a double blackbelt and I'm...not."

"It's only the intro class and it'll be a bunch of kids. You should be fine."

Midoriya thought about this proposal for a moment. It wasn't like he was going to turn her down. But the idea did make him a bit nervous. He wasn't particularly good around kids in his opinion. But if his girlfriend and her teacher needed his help, then who was he to say "no".

"Okay."

"Sweet!" She gave him a warm smile before standing up and hugging him. "So, what did you want to talk about?"

"O-oh, right." The verdant teen blushed. "Well, since this dojo thing is only going to be for the morning...w-would you like to go out on a date with me Saturday night."

"Of course I would! We haven't gone on an actual date in a while." The girl practically cheered at the prospect of having another date night. "So what did you have planned?"

"Actually, it's a bit of a secret."

"Huh?"

"I kinda want to surprise you with something."

"Oh...alright." She nodded while trying to hide her growing curiosity.

"Cool."

"I'm looking forward to it."

"Yeah, me too."

* * *

**Author's Notes: Wow, it feels so weird writing a chapter that's under five thousand words. This was more of a bridge chapter than anything else to tie up a couple of plot points. And I swear, some of you guys in the reviews keep predicting what I'm going to do next and it has me wondering if I'm becoming too predictable. I planned out Kendou talking to Yaoyorozu a while ago. But I guess I kinda telegraphed it.**

**1\. When it comes to Midoriya's talk with Kirishima, I never intended on it to necessarily be a good conversation. And Midoriya coming off as kind of like an asshole was the intention. At this point, Midoriya is completely over Bakugou. But for some reason people keep bringing it up to and around him. In my personal experience, if someone keeps asking me about something they know I don't want to talk about, I won't be as cordial as what I should be. Midoriya very much still has a few character flaws that won't go away that easily. **

**2\. I intended to introduce Dr. Lance after the training camp arc, but there was never really a good place for her to fit up until now. She's one of my friend's favorite comic characters and she really wanted me to add her into the story. (Also, Black Canary is actually fluent in Japanese in the comics, so it kind of just fell into place).**

**3\. Date night next chapter. A little bit of a spoiler, everyone in the group chat was there for a reason.**

**4\. Who do you think Kendou's martial sensei is? It's going to be one of my more audacious references/easter eggs, but I think you guys will like who it is.**

**5\. Some good news! I'm being promoted at work. Ironically, this means that I'll be doing _less_ work during the day so I'll have more time to write after I finish getting settled in to my new office (It's still weird that I'm getting my own office).**

**Like always, thanks for reading and don't be afraid to leave a review.**


	48. Wisteria

Saturday quickly came for the young couple. The two were currently on the morning train to Chiba en route to Kendou's old dojo. Although the girl was excited at getting the chance to meet up with her old sensei, she was equally excited for what was to come later that night.

Her and Midoriya hadn't had a proper date in a few weeks and she was definitely looking forward to it. Not only was she interested in what the boy had planned for this mystery outing. She was a bit surprised seeing as this was the first time he ever really took the reigns in "romance" department. She wasn't complaining though, but the effort was definitely appreciated.

Although she wouldn't admit it out loud, the orange haired teen was so excited that she spent a good three hours picking out her outfit for the occasion. Kendou was never really a fan of dressing up and fashion. But seeing as Midoriya was going through all the trouble set things up by himself, the least she could do was look good. That and she still had a bunch of new outfits from the photoshoot that she had yet to wear.

It wasn't long before the two teens found themselves standing outside their destination. It was smaller, classical looking building with a sign on the front that read: "Iron Fist Dojo". Midoriya couldn't help but give the girl a bit of sideways glance after putting two-and-two together.

'_And I'm the one who lacks originality.'_ He thought with a slight grin.

"Man, I haven't been here in forever." Kendou smiled at the sight of the building. A weird sense of nostalgia beginning to well up in her chest.

"This place looks exactly like I thought it would."

"Yeah, sensei thought the "old school" look was the best."

"Well, it makes sense."

"Right!" Kendou chuckled before moving towards the door. "Let's hurry up inside!"

The two quickly entered the dojo and Midoriya paused for a second to take in the atmosphere. The inside of the building looked exactly like the ones you would see in those old era martial arts movies. His eyes scanned around for a bit more before noticing the trophy case immediately to his right. The boy took it upon himself to inspect the hardware before noticing that quite a few of them had Kendou's name on them. '_I almost forgot that Itsuka's a nationally ranked junior martial artist. She really is something else.'_

"Sensei, it's me Itsuka!" The '_big fist'_ user announced their presence.

A couple of seconds passed before one of the doors in the back of the room slid open. Revealing a middle-aged woman dressed in a green gi with yellow trimmings.

The woman was a bit on the taller side, with tan skin and brown eyes. And her head was shaved completely bald, minus the thick brown ponytail in the back that reached all the way down to her waist. But the one thing that stood out to Midoriya the most was that she was absolutely covered in tattoos. Every last bit of exposed skin that he could see except for her head was coated with ink. Yet, the most notable piece of artwork on her body was what looked like the silhouette of a dragon in the middle of her throat.

"Well aren't you a sight for sore eyes!" The woman chuckled as she made her approach.

"It's good to see you again." Kendou bowed politely, causing Midoriya to follow suit. "O-oh yeah, this is Izuku. He the one who's going to be helping us out."

"H-hello ma'am, it's a pleasure to meet you." The boy said nervously. For some reason, this woman was giving off a really intimidating vibe.

"Ah yes, you're the one who stole my star pupil away from me." She scowled for a moment before letting out a quick laugh and extending out her hand. "I'm Fumiko Fanfei, it's a pleasure to meet you. I run this dojo."

"Thank you for having me." He returned the greeting.

"Thanks for coming. I'll admit that I was a bit surprised when Itsuka told me that she'd be bringing her _boyfriend_ of all people with her today. Imagine my shock when I found out she was dating a celebrity."

"I-I'm really not all that."

"Oh please, I saw your fight with that yakuza boss. You're pretty damn tough. Y'know...if you ever want to go a couple of rounds…." Fanfei smirked before raising her right fist.

Midoriya watched as the woman's hand began glowing a brilliant shade of yellow. Immediately, his '_danger sense'_ activated and the buzzing in the back of his head went off like a car alarm. Whatever this woman's quirk was, Midoriya had a feeling that he should avoid getting hit by it at all cost.

"Sensei!" The ginger teen blushed at the sight of teacher challenging her boyfriend to fight not even five minutes after meeting him.

"Oh my, where are my manners?" Fanfei laughed while deactivating her quirk.

"So what are we going to be doing today?" The quirk inheritor asked.

"Today is just the introductory course for the newbies. Pretty much all of them are below the age of ten. We won't be doing much besides warm ups and showing them the basic forms."

"It's a bit boring, but we're here just to be an extra set of eyes and help out anyone who's struggling." Kendou followed up.

"Oh, well that's pretty easy."

"Indeed." Fanfei nodded. "So Midoriya-kun, Itsuka tells me that she's imparted some of my wisdom onto you. Apparently this "Shoot Style" of yours is heavily based on my taekwondo."

"Y-yes ma'am, it's been a really big help."

"Good, we'll be covering a bit of that today in class."

"We should probably hurry up and get changed before the new students show up." Kendou suggested while grabbing her boyfriend's hand and leading him to the changing rooms in the back.

"Try not to make too much of a mess in there. I just got finished cleaning!" Fanfei called out with an evil smirk.

Both Kendou's and Midoriya's faces flushed at what the woman was implying, causing the martial arts master to burst into a fit of laughter. The two teens shook it off before putting on their uniforms and getting ready for the class.

* * *

The rest of the morning practically flew by. And before she knew it, Kendou was back in her room getting ready to meet up with Midoriya. The orange haired teen had gone through her mental checklist at least nine times in the last thirty minutes just make sure that she hadn't missed anything. She still had no clue what exactly her boyfriend had planned. Which only added to her growing nervousness over the whole situation. But she decided to just roll with it and trust that it was something good.

The orange haired teen gave herself one last look in the mirror just to make sure that everything looked fine. Her outfit was rather simple, but she never really cared for extravagance much to begin with. Kendou was dressed in a white blouse and a pair of khaki pants along with some teal flats and her favorite black leather jacket that she got for Christmas last year. The entire ensemble was topped off with a black beanie.

The girl also decided to forgo her side ponytail tonight and wear her hair down. She was going to ask one of her friends to help her style it a bit for her date. However Tokage, Shiozaki and Komori all had plans this evening and couldn't help. Even Jiro was nowhere to be found. Evidently, there must've been a lot going on around town.

Kendou was brought out of her thoughts when she heard a knock at her bedroom door.

She quickly gave herself one last glance before heading over to it. The girl gave out one last breath before practically flinging the door open, revealing Midoriya standing on the other side with a nervous smile on his face. The boy was dressed in a red flannel shirt, khaki pants, a green jacket and his signature red shoes. Coincidentally, he too decided to sport a black beanie.

"H-hey." Midoriya greeted her a bit nervously.

"Hey." She responded.

"You look amazing." He said with sincerity after taking a moment to look at her outfit.

"Thanks, you don't look half bad yourself."

"Thanks." He smiled. "So, are you ready to head out?"

"Are you still not gonna tell me where it is that we're going?"

"It's a surprise, remember?"

"Fine…" She grinned before taking his hand and making her way down the hall.

* * *

Kendou's curiosity and excitement were getting the best of her as the young couple continued the journey to their unnamed destination.

After leaving the school, the two hopped on the train set for downtown Musutafu. Despite several attempts at goating some information out of the boy, Midoriya somehow managed to stay tight-lipped about the entire thing. Much to Kendou's annoyance.

In no time, they came upon their stop and Midoriya immediately grabbed the girl's hand before leading her onto one of the main roads. The young couple marched down the semi-busy city streets for a good ten minutes with absolutely no indication of where they were heading. Along the way, they passed more than a few restaurants, bowling alleys, movie theaters and other prime date locations. The sight of each new building had the girl guessing whether or not they were going to stop there.

After another couple of minutes a silent walking, Kendou finally decided to speak up. "Izuku, how much further are we gonna go?"

"We just need to turn this next corner and it'll be right down the street." Midoriya told her somewhat nervously.

"Are you sure you just can't tell me what we're doing?"

"It's a surprise, remember."

"Ugh...fine." She pouted sarcastically.

Sure enough, when the two of them turned the next corner Kendou's nose was practically assaulted by the smell of ocean water. She took a moment to look at their surroundings and felt a slight hint of familiarity. Right when she was about to ask her date where they were, the unmistakable image of a beach came into view.

Realization hit the girl like a freight train. She knew exactly where they were, it was Dagobah Beach. Sure she had only been to place one time before, but it was impossible not to recognize the beautiful scenery. Even in the middle of the fall the water looked good enough to want to jump right in.

"Izuku, what are we doing here?" She asked while giving him a confused look.

Instead of a verbal response, what the girl got was Midoriya pointing over to the single wooden cabana on the walkway near the edge of the shoreline. Even from where they were standing, Kendou could see a bright light coming from the middle of the shack.

"C'mon." Midoriya smile at her while once again grabbing her hand and making a beeline straight for it. The closer they got, the easier it became for Kendou to notice that the cabana looked different than what she remembered. However, it wasn't until they were a few meters away that she was finally able to fully take in the sight of it.

The entire cabana was decorated from top to bottom with purple and orange flowers. And each one of the wooden posts along with the inner frame were wrapped in what looked like rose vines. Also on the inside, was a small wooden table with a set of what looked freshly lit candles in the middle.

"What the heck is this?"

"I couldn't really think of anywhere else to go. S-so this seemed like the best option." He admitted with slight tinge of redness on his cheeks.

"How did you set this all up?" She inquired.

"I had a bit of help." Was his simple reply while walking over the table and pulling out one of the chairs before signaling her to take a seat. Of course she obliged and wasted no time in sitting down. "S-so...do you like it?"

"Of course I do!"

"I'm glad to hear it." Midoriya smiled before looking over her shoulder and giving a quick wave.

The action confused Kendou quite a bit before the sound of footsteps caught her attention. When the girl turned her head, she was definitely caught off guard by what she saw. And that was because Jiro, Todoroki and Komori were making their way over to them. What was even more curious was what her classmates were carrying. Jiro was holding one of her acoustic guitars in her hands, Komori was holding what looked like a giant container of food and Todoroki was carrying a couple of drinks.

"What are you guys doing here?" Kendou blurted out.

"Being good friends." Jiro replied while taking up a spot a few meters away from their table. "You two owe me for this, by the way."

"Okay...so I'm guessing Kyoka's gonna play us some music, but what about you two?" She directed her gaze towards Todoroki and Komori.

"I was in charge of making the food!" The brunette cheered proudly while setting the container down on the table. Revealing two plates of sauteed mushrooms with soy butter sauce and white rice.

"I was needed to keep the food and drinks warm and/or cold." Todoroki explain while setting down a large cup of hot coffee next to Kendou and a cold glass of water next to Midoriya.

"We'll be back in a few with desert!"

As the two of them walked away, Kendou turned her attention back to her date. The boy was giving her a nervous smile that made her heart skip a beat. "You really went all out didn't you?"

"W-well, I haven't really been the best boyfriend when it comes to relationship stuff. So I-I wanted to make sure that you had a good time."

If there was ever a time that Kendou wanted to jump across the table and give the boy a hug, now was definitely it. The fact that him and her friends had gone through all the trouble was not lost on her at all. But she was more than willing to accept without complaints. That, and the food Komori made actually smelled really good.

As the young couple began digging into their food, Jiro wasted no time in setting the mood and began playing her guitar. Normally the '_earphone jack'_ user hated playing sappy love songs, but considering the circumstances she was willing to make an exception.

* * *

While Midoriya and Kendou were enjoying their meal and talking up a storm under the autumn sunset, Tokage, Shiozaki, Tetsutetsu, Tokoyami and Yamanaka were casually spying on them by the pier at the other end of the beach. Tokage herself was under strict orders not to come within seven-five meters of the young couple (Ironically, this was also the maximum range of her quirk). And Shiozaki was there to keep watch. The other three were there for moral support.

"Ugh...I wish I could hear what they were saying!" Tokage groaned while looking through a pair of binoculars and leaning over the railing.

"Is she always this...energetic?" Yamanka asked Tokoyami, only to receive a quick nod in return.

"We seriously need to get you a boyfriend, or girlfriend or...something to occupy your time." Tetsutetsu deadpanned.

"Y'know, I'm starting to think that I'm cursed to be eternally single. I've been striking out a lot lately."

"_It's hard to imagine why."_ Shiozaki said under her breath.

* * *

Before they knew it, over thirty minutes had passed by and young couple were deep in conversation. They had already finished their main course and were still awaiting for their apparent desert to be delivered to the table.

"Wait, so your dad is only thirty-four and your mom is forty-five?" Midoriya said in shock after this new revelation. Luckily Jiro was taking a break and wasn't anywhere near them.

"Yeah…" Kendou sighed. "People always think that he's like my older brother or something. One time in middle school this girl in my class asked me if he was seeing anybody."

"How'd they end up together?"

"No clue. Everyone time I asked they just kept dodging the question."

"Wow."

"Yeah." The girl shrugged before taking another sip of her coffee. "But moving on, how's everything going with that new quirk of your's. What did you call it again, the "_Izuku Tingle"_?"

Midoriya immediately gave the girl an unimpressed glare at her joke. "Please do not start calling it the "_Izuku Tingle"_. It just sounds...wrong."

"What? I think it has a certain ring to it. The "_Izuku Tingle"_."

"Please stop." Midoriya all but pleaded to the girl, only getting a satisfied giggle in return.

Another couple of minutes passed before Tokoyami arrived with their deserts. For Kendou, the raven headed teen made some of his signature homemade brownies. He remembered the girl enjoying them a lot during their study session before the end of the semester exam and thought it would be a good choice. And for Midoriya, the boy received a single homemade cinnamon roll that the size of his fist.

* * *

"Are you fucking kidding me?!" Tokage practically shouted at what she was witnessing.

"What?" Yamanaka asked.

"Wonderboy...he's seriously eating a cinnamon roll?"

"What's wrong with that?" Shiozaki looked to girl in confusion.

"That's...that's like cannibalism!"

…

…

…

"I hate you...so fucking much." Tetsutetsu facepalmed so hard that he almost left a dent in his forehead.

* * *

Following their dinner, the young couple decided to begin making their way back to U.A.. Leaving their friends to take care of the clean up. Along the way, they stopped at a nearby park to work off all the food that they ate.

The place was pretty much empty by the time they showed up. There were a few people still lingering around, even some other couples. But for the most part they had their privacy. The park itself had its own special kind of atmosphere to it. The smell of autumn leaves and the briskness of the cool air was just what the doctor ordered. And it also gave Kendou a good enough reason to snuggle a bit closer to Midoriya as they walked the main pathway. Not that she even needed one in the first place.

Eventually, the two found a lone bench in an isolated area of the park.

"I had a really awesome time tonight." Kendou told the boy while leaning her head onto his shoulder.

"I'm glad to hear it."

"You really didn't have to go through so much trouble. I would've been fine with just doing something regular."

"Y-yeah well…I just wanted to make sure that it was something special."

"And it was." She gave him a warm smile. "But I get to plan our next date night."

"Deal."

The two of them sat in comfortable silence for a few minutes while taking in the sight of the city skyline in the distance. It was amazing how the stars were still visible even with a fair amount of light pollution. But it did make for a pretty awesome view. Kendou used this opportunity to move in a bit closer and loop her arms around his.

"Oh yeah, there's something I wanted to show you." Midoriya suddenly said with a slight grin.

"What is it?"

The quirk inheritor stood up from the bench before double checking the area to see if they were alone. Although she was a bit saddened by the loss of contact, Kendou's curiosity quickly overruled that.

Midoriya took a deep breath before extending his right arm out and allowing '_black whip'_ to come forth. Naturally, the girl was confused as to what he was doing but her interests were now piqued. Over the course of the next few seconds Kendou witnessed the wild tendrils of dark energy reform themselves around the boy's arm. She wanted to ask him what he was doing, but she quickly got her answer when the mass of darkness became what looked like a giant hand.

'_It's like my quirk.'_ She thought while taking in every detail of the sight. '_Black whip'_ had taken over most of Midoriya's right arm and the newly conjured appendage was roughly the same size as her's when she activated her power. She didn't get a chance to inspect it any further before the arm quite literally broke apart and reverted back to a mass of tentacles.

"Wow." Was all that she could say.

"That's pretty much the longest I can hold it before it breaks apart. Doing that takes a lot of concentration."

Moments like this reminded Kendou that Midoriya was actually one of the most powerful people on the planet. She had already seen him do some amazing stuff, but nowadays it seemed like he always had some new trick up his sleeve.

"Is this the part where I'm supposed to say something cheesy like, first you stole my heart then you stole my quirk?" Kendou gave him a bit of smirk that forced a bit redness onto his cheeks. "But still, that's insane. What are you gonna call it?"

"I haven't really thought about it." Midoriya rubbed a hand to his chin. "How about I just call it '_black fist'_?"

"Nah, that's pretty lame. And a little too on the nose." Kendou shot back almost instantly.

"Well, what do you think I should call it?"

The girl took a second to think about it. Naming this new possible power up was a pretty big deal. And the last thing she wanted was to give a bad suggestion. She contemplated over it for a few more seconds before a question popped into her mind.

"Do you think you can do that all over your body?"

"I don't know." He said sincerely. "I think I might be able to activate '_black whip'_ anywhere on my body, but I'm still only able to make it come out of my arms. Fumikage gave me some advice on it, but it's still a work in progress."

"Well if that's the case, then I have the perfect name for it."

"What is it?"

"Assault Mode!" The girl practically beamed.

Midoriya let the name linger in his mind for a minute before giving the girl a smile. "I like it."

"You better, because if you're gonna be running around using my quirk then we're gonna have to up the intensity on our sparring matches."

"I look forward to it." He chuckled, even though he knew that she was completely serious. "Y'know…it's actually kind of funny. You were right."

"About what?"

"Me lacking originality."

"I'm confused." She said while tilting her head to the side.

"When it comes to my quirk. To be honest, it feels everything I do is copied from someone else. Most of my smashes are directly from Toshinori-san. I got my "Shoot Style" from you, I had to get advice from Sero-san on how to best use '_black whip'_…." He explained before pausing and letting out a sigh. "And as much I hate to admit it, Bakugou and Sorahiko-san were the inspiration behind my '_Full Cowling'_. Honestly, it feels like I can't come up with anything on my own."

"I don't think that's the case at all." The '_big fist'_ user quickly told him.

"Really?"

"Yeah, if anything it shows that not only are you willing to take advice and inspiration from others. But you're adaptable and mature enough to recognize where you're lacking. Honestly, you copying others is just an example of how intelligent you are. It's one of the things I love about you."

…

…

…

By the time Kendou realized what she said, the deed was already done. Did she really just say that? Out loud? In such a casual way. Granted, it wasn't really a confession. But it was damn near close enough to be construed as one. Then again, it wasn't a lie. Actually…it couldn't have been anything further.

Just when the orange haired teen was about to say something to remedy her verbal folly, she was cut off by Midoriya grabbing her by the hips and crashing his lips into her own. There was something different about this kiss than all the others. There was a jolt of electricity running through her head that she wasn't used to. Either it was the heat of the moment or Midoriya had subconsciously activated his quirk.

When their lips finally parted, green eyes met teal and the world around seemed to stop. For a brief ten seconds, neither one of the two really knew exactly what to say seeing as their heads were filled with a whirlwind of fog.

"Izuku, I-"

"I feel the same way!" He blurted out before he could stop himself.

"Huh?" Kendou blinked.

Did she hear that right? He felt the same way? Was her mind playing tricks on her or did she actually pass out from embarrassment a few seconds ago and was currently in the middle of some weirdly satisfying dream?

"L-look I um…I know that I haven't really been doing a good job at the whole "boyfriend" thing. And I probably could stand to tell you a bit more. But I think that you're amazing. You're smart, you're caring, you're a great person, you're beautiful and you always seem so much more level headed than me. Honestly, I kinda look up to you. And part of the reason that I wanted to take you out tonight is to make up for not putting more effort into it and-"

"Izuku, you're mumbling again." Kendou cut him off by placing a finger on his lips.

"O-oh uh sorry." Midoriya blushed after taking in a deep breath. "Look what I'm trying to say is that...I...I love you."

In all fairness, Kendou never really planned for this moment. And because of that she was not the slightest bit prepared for the backflip that her mind did after hearing those words. Almost immediately her chest tightened, her throat became dry and her ears felt like they were on fire. If anyone just so happened to snap a picture of her in that very moment, one would assume that she was in the middle of a stroke.

A heavy silence lingered in the air while the girl pieced together what was left her sanity. Midoriya just confessed. Her boyfriend just confessed to her and here she was just standing there. Looking at him as if he had just revealed to her the secrets of the universe. In that moment, the orange haired didn't really know what to do. In the end, she just let herself go on autopilot and her body moved on its own.

Without warning, the girl grabbed him by the cheeks and whispered to him a soft tone. "I'm glad we're on the same page."

The next thing Midoriya knew, Kendou had reciprocated his earlier actions and nosedived right into a kiss. However, he wasn't prepared for Kendou slipping her tongue into his mouth. For the next few seconds the duo let their instincts take over and engaged in a full on makeout session right then and there. It was painfully obvious that neither of them knew what they were doing, but they didn't really care at that moment.

It was only when the two remembered that they need to breath was when they finally separated. Both of their faces were a whole new shade of red and their hearts were ready to leap out of their chests.

"That was um…."

"Yeah…."

"B-but I um...I liked it."

"Me too." Kendou smiled before taking his hand and giving him another peck on the cheek. "C'mon dork, we need to get back before we miss curfew. We can get some more practice later."

"Right." Midoriya replied with a million watt smile.

* * *

Back at the beach, the rest of the group were just putting the finishing touches on cleaning up the cabana. Actually, Tetsutetsu, Todoroki and Tokoyami were the ones doing most of the cleaning while the girls gushed over the literal hundreds of photos that they took of their favorite couple.

"I must say, this actually turned out quite well." Shiozaki stated.

"I agree. I'm glad that you guys invited me along. I've never seen Midoriya-kun smile so much." Yamanaka responded.

"What about Itsuka, the girl was practically glowing." Komori added on.

***Sniff!***

Each of the girls turned their attention towards Tokage who was currently doing her best to fight back a few tears. The green haired girl was staring at her phone with a smile on her face.

"You okay?" Jiro asked.

"My goodness, Setsuna was so moved by the pure beauty that is Ituska and Izuku's relationship that it brought her to tears." Shiozaki smiled at the girl. Maybe this was the moment that her friend was finally going to renounce her sinful ways.

"No, it's not that." Tokage replied. "I just feel so bad for what I'm about to do to this poor girl."

"What are you talking about?"

"Don't worry about it." Tokage wiped another tear off her cheek before pressing the "send" button on her phone.

* * *

***I AM HERE! A TEXT MESSAGE IS HERE!***

"I wonder who that could be?" Midoriya wondered out loud while checking his phone. The boy opened up his messaging app and immediately stopped in his tracks. The action was abrupt that Kendou almost stumbled over since she was still holding his hand.

When the girl looked back, she was met with the sight of Midoriya gawking at his phone with a completely bewildered facial expression. If she didn't know any better she would say that his eyes were about to pop out of his head.

"Izuku, what's wrong?" She asked, only to be with silence from the green haired statue.

Deciding to get to the bottom of this, Kendou stepped over to him and took a peek at his phone. Unfortunately, what she saw was enough to cause her soul to evacuate her body.

It was a picture of Kendou…

In the locker room…

After her training match with Bondo at the start of the year…

'_Oh fuck, I completely forgot that she had that picture!'_ Kendou screamed internally. Only one person in the world was in possession of such a photo. And she knew exactly who was responsible for this.

'_Oh my god, there's glue everywhere.'_ Midoriya thought to himself while trying to "factory reset" his brain.

In that moment, Kendou decided that she was going to dedicate all available time, effort and resources into making sure that Tokage paid for this. There wasn't a force in the world that was going to stop her from exacting her revenge.

(Tokage 3 - 1 Kendou)

* * *

**Author's Notes: Hey, at least Tokage waited until the end of their date to send that picture.**

**1\. So yeah, "fluff" is still one of my weak points when it comes to writing. I'm trying to improve on it but it's pretty apparent that I'm better at writing dark/fight scenes. I'll make sure to do better in my future writing.**

**2\. I didn't want to do some overdramatic confession, I wanted it to be more "organic". I feel like it's been painfully obvious that Midoriya and Kendou have been in love with each other for a while now but there was never really a chance to say it.**

**3\. For those of you who are wondering, yes...Kendou's sensei is Iron Fist, just not Danny Rand. Fan Fei was the original Iron Fist in the comics. She was another character that I planned on introducing earlier on in the fic but there was never really a good spot for her up until now. Plus, in my opinion it made way too much sense that Kendou would take inspiration from a character like that.**

**4\. For those of you having a hard time picture Midoriya's "Assault Mode", look up a picture of Derieri from "The Seven Deadly Sins". Or just imagine Kendou's quirk, but it's literally just a giant black hand. I'll be playing around with that in future chapters.**

**5\. Next chapter is going to be somewhat of an intermission/filler. It's pretty much just going to be all of the prank war between Kendou and Tokage. I'm having trouble coming up with a few pranks, so if there's anything you want to see, drop a suggestion in the reviews or PM me. Also, after the next chapter is going to be the timeskip. It's going to be a few years after U.A. when the characters are adults and pro heroes. So this is your warning in case it seems out of the blue.**

**Like always, thanks for reading and don't be afraid to leave a review.**

**P.S.: I literally had to stop myself from posting the first chapter of my Midoriya x Tokage fic today. But I'm determined to see this one through to the end!**


	49. Prank War

The next morning Tokage woke up feeling unusually good. Normally, she dreaded having to go on her early morning runs. But today she was actually looking forward to it, for some inexplicable reason. She didn't have anything planned for the day. And thanks to Midoriya and Kendou's date, everyone involved ended up barely making it back before curfew. Under normal circumstances, this would've been the perfect excuse to crawl back into bed and lounge about until noon. But today, she was determined to clock in those miles.

The green haired girl took a few minutes to brush her teeth and stretch out to the sounds of the playlist on her phone before deciding to head out. After slipping on her hoodie and grabbing her headphones, she practically swung the door open with a face of determination. However, once she did that Tokage was met with the sight of her doorway being completely filled with plastic cups.

She paused for a second before inspecting what was blocking her door and sure enough, every last cup was nearly filled to the brim with water. What was even more insane was how the cups were stacked tightly enough to allow her to turn the handle.

It didn't take a genius to figure out who was responsible for this. But Tokage decided to save the debauchery for after her run. The '_lizard tail splitter'_ user carefully closed the door before making her way over to her window and opening the curtains. What she wasn't expecting was for her only other exit from her room to be filled with the same plastic cups as well. And the worst part was that due to the doors opening outward instead of inward, there was no way for her to open them without causing them to fall on the ground.

'_Itsuka must've gotten Wonder to do this while I was asleep.'_ The girl suspected.

Deciding to admit defeat for this round, Tokage spent the next thirty minutes very carefully removing the cups from her doorway. All while plotting her newest scheme.

(Tokage 3 - 2 Kendou)

* * *

Once the greenette was done with her run, she wasted no time formulating her newest prank while making her way over to the kitchen. Before leaving, Tokage preped her orange flavored post-workout energy drink for her return. In all honesty, it was the one positive part of her daily exercise that was looking forward to. She would even go as far to say that it was a deciding factor on how her day went.

The girl had a slight smile on her face as she opened up the refrigerator and grabbed the sweet nectar that was sure to bring her body back to life after a good run. She slowly brought the vessel up to her lips in preparation to savor this holy delicacy. And with no regard for how unladylike she might appear to anyone who just so happen to walk by, took a giant swig of her drink.

The second the energy drink hit her tongue she immediately spat it out onto the kitchen floor.

'_Is that...cheese?'_ Tokage wondered while staring at the cup with a face of bewilderment. What was supposed to be refreshing orange flavor was switched with the pungent tang of what was probably some form of powdered cheese. Immediately, she knew who was responsible for this travesty against mankind. Only a truly depraved individual would tamper with her food.

'_Oh hell no. She's gone too far this time!' _

(Tokage 3 - 3 Kendou)

* * *

Kendou was having a pretty awesome day so far. Not only did she surely ruin Tokage's morning, but her latest prank was already set up and ready to go. Her questionable choice of best friend was not prepared for what's coming next. On top of that, she had a really awesome workout with her boyfriend before making her way back to the dorms.

Once the orange haired teen was back in her room, she made a beeline straight for the shower. She still wasn't used to Midoriya's frankly inhuman workout routine, but at least she was able to make it through without passing out from exhaustion. For now, all she was concerned about was massaging away the soreness of her muscles.

Once she was inside, she quickly turned the handle, closed her eyes and let the water wash over her body while she rested her shoulder against the wall. It was only after about thirty seconds that she noticed a strange smell coming from around her.

'_Is that chocolate?'_ She wondered after taking a brief sniff of the air.

The moment Kendou opened her eyes, she nearly fell out of the shower when she saw that the water hitting her body was brown instead of clear. Immediately, the orange haired teen leaped out and looked up at her shower head to see faint trails of brown liquid leaking out of it. After turning the water off, Kendou detached the device from it's main housing and was almost assaulted with the smell of chocolate coming from the shower head.

'_What the fu-'_ Her thought was cut off when her phone went off. She took a quick peek at the device which revealed a single text message from none other than Tokage. Kendou let out a deep sigh and opened the message up, only to be met with picture of Tokage's smiling face holding a bag of chocolate milk mix.

'_Why am I not surprised?'_

(Tokage 4 - 3 Kendou)

* * *

It took Kendou a good thirty minutes to clean out her showerhead and rinse herself off after Tokage's prank. She was fairly certain that she was going to smell like chocolate for the rest of the day, but there were worse things in the world than that.

Once she was done, the orange haired teen decided to take a moment to herself and relax before coming up with her next scheme. Without a second thought, she dropped herself onto her computer chair. However, when an almost earsplitting wail erupted from the bottom of her seat Kendou's heart nearly jumped out of her chest.

After taking a few much needed deep breaths, the girl was quick to inspect her piece of furniture. Sure enough, as if she were in some twenty-first century cartoon, Kendou was face-to-face with a portable air horn attached to the underside of her chair. Without a second thought she removed the device, but decided to hang on to it for later.

'_Okay, now the kid gloves are off!'_ The girl shouted internally before grabbing her phone and texting the one person she knew she could rely on in this situation.

Fist: Are you busy?

All Might: No

Fist: I need your help with something. But...you're not gonna like it.

All Might: What is it?

(Tokage 5 - 3 Kendou)

* * *

The rest of the morning went by relatively uneventful inside the 1-B dorms.

After hanging out with Shiozaki, Komori and Tetsutetsu in the common room for a little while, Tokage decided to head back up to her room for a much needed afternoon nap. She was curious as to whether or not Kendou was ready to admit defeat, but she had no problem waiting for the girl to come to her senses.

Once Tokage walked out of the stairwell onto the second floor, the voice of a certain green haired Wonderboy caught her attention. "S-Setsuna!"

"Ye-"

***Bam!***

Tokage didn't get a chance to fully turn around before Midoriya was right in front of her. The green haired boy slamming his open palm into the wall right next to her face. The girl turned her head once again only to realize that her face was merely a few centimeters from Midoriya's. They were so close that she could feel his breath on her lips.

'_Kabedon?'_

"W-Wonderboy...wh-what the hell are you doing?!"

Midoriya didn't break eye contact for a second as he leaned in ever so closer. As the seconds passed, Tokage could feel her face heating up and her chest suddenly became tight.

"Setsuna, I can't hold back any longer." The boy said in a way that made his voice sound silky smooth.

What did that mean? What did he mean he couldn't hold back? What was happening? Why was Midoriya so close? And why did he smell so good? Was this...was this finally happening? This was some sort of misunderstanding, it had to be. Was Izuku Midoriya putting the moves on her? This was awesome! No wait, not awesome. This was her best friend's boyfriend. Her totally hot, cinnamon roll boyfriend with nice arms and a nice butt.

"W-w-what are you t-talking about dude?" She stuttered uncharacteristically while turning her head, only for Midoriya to grab her by the chin and guide her eyes back to his own.

"I think you know what I mean." He whispered.

Oh god, this was really happening. The day had finally come. Izuku Midoriya had finally learned how dangerous he was. Tokage gulped while peering into to those bright emerald orbs of his. Was this a dream? Was he really doing this right here and now? Why did it feel like her ears were on fire? Did she remember to clean her room? What color underwear was she wear-

'_No! Bad Setsuna!'_ She chastised herself.

"I-I-Izuku, this is...so sudden." A now red faced Tokage began humping her fingers together before regaining her sanity. "You...you shouldn't be doing this! You have a girlfriend."

Instead of verbal response, what Tokage got was Midoriya slowing leaning his face in towards her. She didn't know whether it was out of fear or shock, but her body froze in place. Time seemed to slow down the closer her got. And with each passing second the '_lizard tail splitter'_ user could feel heart rate rapidly increasing. It was only when their faces were about ten centimeters away from one another did she resign herself to her fate.

***Click!*** The unmistakable shutter of a camera going off brought the girl out of her momentary stupor. Tokage immediately looked to her right to see Kendou standing with a devious grin on her face while holding her phone out towards her.

"Man Setsuna, I think don't think I've ever seen you look so flustered." The orange haired teen giggled.

"What the-"

"Did you really think that Izuku was going to put the moves on you like that?" She asked.

The green haired girl turned her attention back to Midoriya. A moment ago, the boy's face was resolute and determined. Now, the only expression on his face was one of pure and utter shame.

"I-I'm so sorry Setsuna. I really d-didn't want to do this." The boy apologize while quickly backing away and holding his hands up defensively.

"Wait...that was a prank?"

"Of course it was!" Kendou shot back with a grin before grabbing Midoriya by the hand and walking off to her bedroom. "That'll teach you to almost give me a heart attack."

Tokage stood motionless in the hall by herself for a moment to try and settle her now flared up hormones. However, it was a lost cause. The girl let out a deep breath before making a beeline straight into her room and locking the door behind her. Determined to get back at her best friend for pulling such crude trick...and to handle some other business.

No one saw Tokage for the rest of the day.

(Tokage 5 - 4 Kendou)

* * *

The next morning, the students of 1-B were on their way to class like usual. Although their prank war was now in full swing, Kendou was certain that Tokage wouldn't pull something while in class again. When everyone finally got to the classroom, the girl set her backpack down and began finishing around for her English textbook.

Everyone stopped moving when the orange haired girl let out a yell and quite literally jumped into Midoriya's arms.

"Itsuka, what's wrong?!" The quirk inheritor asked with much concern in his voice.

"Sp-sp-spider." The girl whispered while pointing to her bag.

Curious to see what kind of creature could scare Class 1-B's resident tomboy, Tetsutetsu decided to take a peak. After a brief moment, the silver haired teen began laughing before pulling out a cartoonishly big rubber spider. Revealing it to the rest of the class. For what it was worth, the thing did look real enough that a quick glance would make anyone jump out of their shoes.

"What the hell?!" Jiro questioned after putting herself behind Kaminari in hopes of using him as meat shield.

Kendou immediately shot a death glare at Tokage who was giving her a thumbs up and a shiteating grin.

(Tokage 6 - 4 Kendou)

* * *

That afternoon once lunch was over, the hero course students finished wrapping up their rescue training for the day. Everyone ended up doing rather well and even got praise from Thirteen for being so on top of things. Which was a rarity seeing as the '_black hole'_ user was pretty strict when it came to rescue training.

Once the girls were in the locker room, Tokage was quick to undo her costume and hop in the shower. Once she felt all nice and clean, the girl grabbed her deodorant and began applying it. However, the moment the stick hit her armpit she knew something was off. Instead of the usual smooth application of her antiperspirant, she was met with a cold and slimy sensation.

"What the fuck?" She looked down at the spot to see a not-so-subtle trail of white goop. With a second thought, she swiped her finger over the area and gave the substance a quick sniff.

'_Cream cheese? Are you fucking kidding me?'_ She cursed before sending a death glare over to Kendou. The orange haired girl responding with double finger guns and a cheeky smile.

(Tokage 6 - 5 Kendou)

* * *

Once classes were done for the day, Tokage all but sprinted back to the dorms to set up for her next prank. She intended on saving this one for a more dire situation, but now she had no problem kicking things up a notch.

At the end of the hall, Tokage had just finished setting up what could only be described as a giant slingshot. The device itself was rather simple, but what it lacked in flare it made up for in effectiveness. Simply put, it was made from pieces of scraps that the girl got from the support department that were were also welded together by an unsuspecting Awase who decided it was best not to ask any questions. All along with a massive, industrial strength rubber band. The device's sole purpose was to launch a balloon filled with motor oil at Kendou the moment she turned the corner onto the hall.

After about ten minutes of patiently waiting with her contraption, the unmistakable sound of footsteps near the stairwell caught her attention. The green haired girl quickly detached one of her eyeballs and sent it down the hallway to peek around the corner. She clicked her teeth for a moment when she saw that it was not only Kendou making her way to her room, but Midoriya an Jiro as well.

However, hope was not lost. The green haired boy was in the center, while Jiro stood to his left and her target to his right. Which meant that no matter what, Kendou was going to take the full force of this balloon.

Tokage waited for a few more seconds as they advanced closer and closer to the wall. And the moment Kendou's foot passed the corner, the green haired girl released the balloon. The motor oil filled object was on a direct course for the girl's head.

**~Right Side!~** Midoriya's '_danger sense'_ activated, forcing his body to move in response to the oncoming threat. Without a second thought, the quirk inheritor grabbed Kendou by the arm and pulled her back behind the wall. However, he wasn't able to grab Jiro in time to stop the girl from taking the full force of the balloon. The young couple watched as black liquid splattered all over the rocker teen's face.

"What the fuck?!" Jiro angrily shouted after regaining and senses.

'_How did he dodge that?'_ Tokage wondered before three sets of eyes locked onto to her.

"Setsuna, what the hell is your problem?!" Jiro continued while marching down the hall with her '_earphone jacks'_ primed and ready to go.

Without a second thought, Tokage opened up one of the glass windows to her right and activated her quirk before flying off. Leaving a now furious Jiro to wave a fist in her direction.

"You have to come back here sooner or later!"

(Tokage 6 - 5 Kendou)

* * *

Things managed to die down a bit before Tokage snuck into the building and made her way back to her room. Jiro had pretty much blocked off every entrance into the building and planted herself in the common area to patiently wait for her return. And as luck would have it, Tokage locked her window so there was no way for her to get back inside. However, once the rocker teen left to go to take a bathroom break is when the girl seized her opportunity.

Tokage let out a sigh of relief as she opened up her bedroom door. Only for a sudden, earsplitting wailing sound to scare her so badly that her head popped off.

Once she pieced herself back together, the girl looked behind her bedroom door only to find the same portable air horn from her earlier prank tapped to the wall behind it.

'_Okay, how the fuck did she even get in here?!'_ Tokage wondered before ripping the device off the wall and tossing it into the trash.

(Tokage 6 - 6 Kendou)

* * *

At this point Kendou was starting to get paranoid. It had been a full day since Tokage's last prank and she had no clue when the girl was going to strike next. She had taken extra precautions to make sure that there was no way that the girl could find a way into her room and even took measures to keep her stuff as far away from her at all times. The suspense was killing her because she knew that sooner or later the girl would strike. Probably when she was least expecting it.

The orange haired teen was brought out of her ruminations at the sound of knock on her door. Very carefully the girl made approach and let out a deep sigh before cracking it open and peeking through it. Luckily, instead of Tokage or some confetti bomb being on the other side, it was Komori.

"Hey Itsuka, can I borrow your hair dryer? Mine isn't working." The brunette asked while holding a very damp towel over her head. .

"Yeah sure, no problem." Kendou agreed before heading to her bathroom and grabbing the device and its case. "Bring it back whenever you're done."

"Thanks!" The '_mushroom'_ quirk user smiled with a bow before taking the case and heading back to her room. Leaving Kendou to continue wondering what Tokage's next move was going to be.

A few minutes later, Komori was back in her room and ready to remedy her current hair-related issue. The brunette hummed a tune from her favorite freelance pop-idol from Naruhata while hooking device up to the outlet.

The moment the girl turned the device on, she was assaulted with a cloud of white smoke that completely blinded her for a few seconds.

'_What the fuck? Is this baby powder?'_ The girl wondered before looking in the mirror. '_Great, now I have to take another shower.…'_

(Tokage 6 - 6 Kendou)

* * *

To say that Kendou was confused would be an understatement. At some point during the day, the girl's phone went missing. She definitely had it during lunch but a few hours later once classes were over it was gone. She never used her phone during class and kept it in her jacket pocket pretty much all of the time. Her and Midoriya had spent the last hour retracing her steps and calling it over-and-over again, but to no avail.

Eventually the girl just gave up and resigned herself to having to buy a new one at some point. Luckily, she still had a lot of money left over from the check she got for the modelling gig with Midoriya. But it was still an expense that she didn't want.

"Hey Kendou, you have a package in the common area." Kaibara announced after the young couple made their way into the dorms.

"Really?" She questioned before directing her vision towards a wrapped box on one of the tables. That was weird, she hardly ever got mail. And she doesn't remember ordering anything on Omozon recently. She took a second to inspect the box before the lightbulb went off over her head. No doubt this was one of Tokage's pranks.

Kendou was going to leave the box be, but suddenly the sound of her ringtone caught her attention. The girl gawked at the package for a minute in utter disbelief. No doubt something terrible was waiting for her on the inside of what was now known as "Pandora's Box". But the orange haired teen couldn't just abandon her phone.

"Izuku, can you open this for me?" She handed the box to her boyfriend.

"What?! No, there's no way I'm opening that thing!" He shot back, fully aware of how dangerous of an undertaking like that could be.

"Aren't heroes supposed to be fearless?"

"And I believe that you are a very capable hero, Itsuka."

The two stared at each other for a second before a stroke of luck came their way. Togaru Kamakiri of all people came walking out of the elevator with Honenuki and Shoda. Kendou knew that the three boys hung out every now and then, but that was usually on the weekends.

"Kamakiri-kun, I need your help." Kendou told the '_razor sharp'_ user.

"What's up?" The tall boy responded.

"Can you open up this box for me? I don't have any scissors."

"Yeah, sure." Kamakiri shrugged before producing a blade one of his fingers and slicing open the box. To this day, the green skinned boy vehemently denies letting out a _very_ girly screech as a slew of rubber snakes launched themselves out of the box towards his face.

"What the hell?" Honenuki shouted after clutching his chest and letting his heart rate get back to normal.

"Phew, dodged a bullet there." Kendou sighed with relief.

"What the fuck, Kendou?! Where the hell do you get off pulling that shit like that on me?! You wanna fight me or something?!"

It took Midoriya, Shoda and Honenuki a good five minutes to calm the boy down enough to explain the situation.

(Tokage 6 - 6 Kendou)

* * *

The following day, a few members of Class 1-B were chilling out the common area and participating in their weekly video game tournament. As per usual, Yanagi was steamrolling through everyone. But this time around Shoda and Kaminari were actually giving the girl a run for her money.

About halfway through this round of "Super Smash Bros." Tetsutetsu got up from his seat to head to the kitchen. The silver haired boy was knee deep in a bowl of fries and iron shavings but quickly realized that he was low on condiments.

"Hey Itsuka, this is your ketchup in the fridge, right?!" He shouted to his class rep while holding the bottle up in the air.

"Yeah!" She responded.

"Do you mind if I have some?"

"Go for it!"

'_Oh fuck!'_ Tokage internally cursed after hearing that. Immediately the girl hopped from her seat and locked eyes with the '_steel'_ quirk user. "Metalhead, don't open that bottle!"

"Why not?" He asked, but it was already too late. The second he opened up the lid, a rocket of red liquid hit the boy in the face with some pretty incredible force. The pained shout he gave off was enough to draw everyone's attention. And for a split second the students of 1-B thought they were in the middle of some type of high school horror flick. "What the hell?!"

"Shit…" Tokage cursed as all eyes in the room locked onto her.

Everything went silent for a second before a now ketchup-covered Tetsutetsu placed his bowl on the counter and marched into the middle of the common area. "That's it, I'm sick of this shit! Emergency class meeting, right now!"

* * *

_~Twenty Minutes Later~_

After Tetsutetsu took a much needed shower, the students of class 1-B were huddled together in the common area. Well actually, Kendou and Tokage were tied to a set of chairs and being held in place by Shiozaki's vines while being surrounded by the rest of their classmates.

"I can't believe you two." The silver haired teen started as he began pacing around them. "I'm absolutely disappointed."

"Look, I'm sorry. But you have to admit, a baking soda and ketchup bomb was a pretty awesome idea, right?" Tokage gave the boy a toothy smirk.

"Silence woman!" He pointed an accusatory finger at her. "This stupid prank war of your's has gone on long enough."

"Tetsutetsu's right." Awase chimed in. "At first it was funny because it was just the two of you, but now the rest of us are getting caught in the crossfire."

"Do you know how long it took me to get all that motor oil out of my hair?" Jiro scowled at Tokage.

"You two are the god damn-"

"Tetsutetsu, language!" Shiozaki immediately scolded the boy for taking the Lord's name in vain.

"My bad." He quickly apologized. "You two are the class reps! You're supposed to be the responsible ones. If anything, we're the ones who are supposed to be doing the stupid pranks while you guys chew us out."

Getting read the riot act by Tetsutetsu of all people was rather surreal for moment for Kendou. But the boy absolutely right. This prank war was quickly getting out of hand. If things progressed any further, someone could actually end up getting hurt. Or the teachers would find out about it.

"Yes Tetsutetsu, you're absolutely right."

"I don't know what started all of this nonsense, but can the two of you please agree to put an end to this before something stupid happens that get's us all in trouble?" Kaminari asked.

The two girls gave couple of slight nods before bowing their heads in shame. Well, Kendou was the one who bowed her head in shame. Tokage was just waiting for this to be over with.

"Seriously...Kendou-chan I don't know what Tokage did to egg you on so bad, but you can't stoop to her level."

"What?" The green haired girl raised an eyebrow at Rin. A few other students nodded in agreeance with the boy's proclamation. "Wait...you think I started this?"

"Uh...yeah." Nearly everyone in the room said simultaneously.

"You've been doing shit like this to us all year. It only makes sense that you're the cause of all this."

Never in her life had Tokage felt so attacked. Granted, they weren't necessarily wrong. But Kendou was the one who started the prank war in the first place. Even if her constant teasing is what caused the girl to make the first move. She had been keeping things relatively light up until recently. And everyone who happened to get caught up in the middle of things was just...collateral damage. Suddenly an idea popped into her head. She knew exactly how to get the heat off her long enough to get away.

"You motherfuckers…." The girl said in mock disgust while detaching her head and floating it above everyone else. "Are you all seriously putting the blame for this on me?"

"Look it doesn't matter who starte-"

"Quiet!" She told Honenuki before continuing on. "I will not tolerate you all ganging up on me like this. How dare you? I've been nothing but nice to everyone here all year and this how you repay me."

"_Nice_ isn't really a good word." Kaibara said under his breath.

"Y'know what...just for that, I'm airing out all of your dirty laundry!" She announced with a devious smile.

A cold chill entered the room after hearing that. A few students look at each other nervously. No one really knew what the girl meant, but a few anxious gulps could be heard around the group.

"First things first, these two!" The girl's right hand detached from her body and pointed at Kaminari and Jiro. "Have been dating in secret for the last three weeks!"

…

…

…

"What?!" Everyone's eyes immediately turned towards the two teens in questions.

"How the hell did you-" Jiro started before slapping her hands over her mouth.

"Oh my god...it's true?"

"How scandalous~." Aoyama glittered dramatically.

"Congratulations you two!" Komori shouted with glee.

"Denki, you idiot! I told you not to tell anyone!" The purple haired rocker aimed her quirk at him.

"I didn't, I swear!" The '_electrification'_ quirk user held his arms up defensively.

"Wait, Jiro's _not_ a lesbian?" That last comment earned Tetsutetsu an earphone jack to the neck.

Tokage was quick to detach her left arm now and aimed the appendage at the girl currently holding her body in place. "Ibara has a crush on Awase. She even has a few pictures of him saved him her phone!"

The attention in the room quickly shifted from the alleged couple towards the vined haired girl. Shiozaki had adopted a "deer in headlights" expression before covering her face and turning her body away from everyone else. Meanwhile, Awase was a blushing mess.

'_How did she even know that?'_

"Y'know...that makes a lot of sense." Fukidashi's thought bubble read out.

The next body part to detach was Tokage's left leg. The free floating appendage pointing it's toes at the gentle giant of the class. "Bondo goes to ballet lessons on the weekend!" She shouted.

"How the hell-"

Okay, that was one that nobody saw coming. Although, it always struck everyone as odd how the guy was so nimble on his feet despite his size. Him doing ballet lessons was a rather reasonable explanation.

In the back of the room, Honenuki was laughing up a storm. The '_softening'_ quirk user was getting a kick out of hearing all of this wonderful information. That was until Tokage's right leg pointed an accusatory toe at him. "Don't think I forgot about you, Juzo."

"Huh?"

"Juzo, Shoda, Kaibara and Kamakiri sneak out of the dorms past curfew on the weekends to play poker and hustle the business course students."

The three boys that were present for this accusation all decided to play it off as if it wasn't true. Meanwhile in the 1-A dorms, Kamakiri felt a chill go down his spine.

"Fukidashi writes "BL" fanfiction!" Was the next thing that came of the girl's mouth. The '_comic'_ quirk user simply passed out from the embarrassment.

"Wonderboy has at least five pages of in-depth analysis on every last person in the hero course. Including the guys in 1-A. In fact, he even has everyone ranked in order of weakest to strongest. And a few of you might not take so kindly to where he put you." The quirk inheritor flushed at the unwanted attention and found the wall next to him very intriguing. Needless to say, more than a few students were going to follow up on these alleged class ranking.

'_That's why my notebook went missing for a few days! I thought I just misplaced it.'_

"And last but not least." Tokage paused for dramatic effect. "Yui is actually a famous cospl-"

"Shut the fuck up!" Kodai shouted and floundered her arms before her classmate had a chance to finish. For the majority of the class, this was truly a shocking moment. Most of them had never heard the girl say actual words let alone express any type of emotion before.

With the floodgates now open, everyone began questioning one another on whether or not the accusations were true. Shiozaki and Jiro were getting badgered by Komori and Kendou about their love lives. Half of the boys were hounding Midoriya about where he had them ranked. Aoyama was offering to join Bondo's ballet lessons. Honenuki and Shoda were cancelling their plans for the weekend. And for some reason Yanagi had pulled Fukidashi to side to talk to him about something: "Really important".

While this was going on, no one noticed Tokage quietly slip away back to her room. The green haired girl flashing a devious grin at the destruction that she had wrought.

'_The hardest choices require the strongest wills.'_

* * *

**Author's Notes: Can you guys tell that I had a lot of fun writing this chapter? Because I had a lot of fun writing this chapter. Originally I had about seven more pranks planned out, but I felt this was a good stopping point. Like I said, this was more of a filler/intermission chapter before the time skip.**

**1\. Quite a few characters are going to be returning in the next one. And a long awaited conversation is going to be had. I'll let you guys guess at who these characters are. Some of them might surprise you.**

**2\. Which prank was your favorite?**

**3\. This was my first real attempt at a pure comedy chapter. I like to think that I did pretty well, but I'll let you guys decide.**

**4\. How do you guys feel about Tokage dropping all those nukes at the end? It was something I wanted to do for a while and I told myself that I'd do it before the story is finished. Plus I wanted to have some fun with 1-B characters that I don't use that often. (My next fic is going to be a 1-B focus, so I'll have the chance to flesh them out a bit more). And don't worry, Tokage will definitely be learning a valuable lesson from all of this. **

**Like always, thanks for reading and don't be afraid to leave a review.**


	50. Another Day at the Office

"Can't you go any faster?!" Tokage all but screamed in Kendou's ear as they flew down the road on the woman's custom motorcycle. She was clinging onto her friend so tightly that she was running the risk of cutting off her circulation.

"I'm already breaking the speed limit. Plus we're on the freeway. If we go any faster we'll get into an accident!" Kendou shot back after swerving through a couple of cars.

"Still, we need to get there as soon as possible. We don't know how long Kyoka and Tetsutetsu can hold things down."

"I know, I know. We'll be there in less than five minutes."

True to her word, Kendou and Tokage were on the scene about three minutes later. Fortunately, they were out doing their roadway patrols when the duo got the emergency call from Jiro. So getting there quickly wasn't really an issue to begin with.

Once they pulled up to the abandoned warehouse, things were pretty much what they expected. The building was surrounded on all sides by at least one squad car. And their friends were discussing things with the police lieutenant.

"Catch us up." Kendou said to her agency partners.

"To make a long story short…" Jiro started. "She's been masquerading as a bartender in some underground nightclub right here in town. One of the workers saw her release her transformation, they notified the cops, we tried raiding the place, she went on the run and then we cornered here."

"Damn, she's been right under our noses the whole time?" Tokage clicked her teeth in annoyance.

"Well...her quirk is suited for that kind of thing. And hiding in plain sight is the oldest trick in the book." Kendou responded.

"So what's the plan?" Tetsutetsu inquired, knowing that the woman more than likely had something cooked up.

"There's only one way in or out of that warehouse. On top of that, I've been using my quirk to listen and keep track of her movements. She has nowhere to go."

"Weapons?"

"She did have some quirk bullets on her and Tetsutetsu ended up getting hit a few times."

"Are you okay?" Tokage asked in a concerned tone.

"Yeah." The silver haired man waved off. "Luckily I was already using my quirk when she tried shooting me. I don't think it will be a problem anymore, seeing as when she ran out of bullets she threw the gun at Kyoka. And if she had any more blood to use, she would've done so by now."

"So it's just the four of us then?"

"Yup. Everyone else is too far away."

"Should we call Izuku for backup?"

"Absolutely not." Kendou said without missing a beat. "There's no way in hell I'm letting that woman anywhere near him. The last thing we need is her getting a chance to copy any of his quirks."

"Either way, it's four of us and one fo her. We should be able to wrap this up quickly."

"So what's the plan?"

"Kyoka will be on recon duty. Tetsutetsu is going to be our front man and the two of us will go through the main entrance. Setsuna's gonna back us up and stay next to the door just in case she slips passed us. All I need is to get one solid hit and we should be good." Kendou said while taking charge of the operation.

"Sound's good to me."

"Alright, let's hurry up and get this done."

After another couple minutes of brainstorming and clearing things with the police, the group of heroes wasted no time getting into position. Although a job like this routine, the fact that their target was such a well known threat had them a bit on edge. As her and Tetsutetsu stacked up next to the entrance, Kendou gave her stun gloves one last check. She would've much rather preferred having her gauntlets seeing as the likelihood of her getting stabbed was very high. But they were in the shop being upgraded right now.

"Alright, is everyone good to go?" She asked while placing a hand up to her ear.

"Ready." Jiro said from just beyond the police line.

"Let's do this." Tokage nodded a few meters behind them.

With one good squeeze of the shoulder from Kendou, Tetsutetsu activate his quirk rushed the door with enough force to knock it completely off its hinges. And the moment he passed the threshold he was met with a knife to face.

"Argh!" He groaned more out of surprise than actual pain. The man immediately looked up to see their target standing about thirty meters away from them with another knife ready to be thrown.

"Tch, I don't like you. You don't bleed." The blonde haired villain clicked her teeth.

"This is your only chance, Toga. Surrender now and come peacefully!" Kendou shouted at the woman.

"Oh it's you, the muscle bitch! If I take care of you now, I get to have Izuku-baby all to myself!" The psychotic grin that appeared on Toga's face would be enough to send a chill down the spines of even the most seasoned pros. In all honesty, this is exactly why Kendou didn't want to call the guy in the first place.

Before the two heroes even had a moment to think, Toga was right in front of them and made an upwards slash aimed for Kendou's face. The orange haired woman was able to dodge it and attempt a gut punch, but Toga was nimble enough to side step it and back off.

'_We need to end this quickly.'_ She told herself before enlarging both of her hands. Without warning, the _'big fist' _user proceeded to violently wave her hands around in front of her. Creating a gust of wind that was strong enough to stop the woman's movements. With all the debris and dust flying around, Toga was forced to use her arms to protect her eyes.

"Tetsutetsu!" Kendou shouted towards her partner, giving him the green light to charge into Toga with enough force to knock her off her feet. The man didn't waste a second in subduing her as he grabbed both of her arms and forced them behind her back. The blonde haired villain began struggling but it was to no avail. "Hurry up!" He commanded as he turned her over.

Without missing a beat, Kendou shrunk down her hands and dashed towards the two of them. Barely a brief second before her electricity-charged fist made contact with the woman's gut, she noticed the look of absolute defeat on her face. As soon as he stun glove made contact with Toga, she was met with 55,000 volts of electricity which was enough to knock her out cold. Luckily for Tetsutetsu, his hero costume was mostly made out of a dense rubber weave.

"Setsuna, Zip-ties!" The woman called out towards the door. Tokage was quickly upon them and secured the woman's wrists with a pair of cable ties.

"Capture complete!" Tetsutetsu cheered at their victory.

The group of three wasted no time in taking the villain outside and letting the police take custody of her. In fact, they were more than a bit excited to finally get the woman behind bars. She had been on the run for years at this point and they were wondering if they ever going to find her. Once they were done wrapping things up, everyone decided to save the celebration for after they got back to the agency.

* * *

Life was not kind to Katsuki Bakugou. Well actually, he still had it pretty good compared to others. But when it came to how he envisioned his future, this certainly wasn't what he had planned for himself.

Karma truly was a bitch. But in the end he really had no one to blame but himself. As it turns out, all those years of being a foul mouth, arrogant teenager really came to bite him in the ass. And after getting kicked out the Shiketsu hero course for losing his cool and lashing out at some of his classmates and teachers, he got the wake up call that he truly needed.

If it wasn't for the fact that Shiketsu also had a well-respected police academy program, he doesn't really know where his life would've ended up. Scratch that, he didn't even want to go down that road.

Police work sure wasn't as glamorous as what he had hoped for. And there were more boring days than exciting ones. Overall, he was perfectly content with how things turned out. He wouldn't go so far as to say that he was satisfied with it. But at times like this it was best to make the most of his situation.

He'd been on the job for a couple of years by this point and was making quite a name for himself. His colleagues respected his work ethic and he was already on the fast track to becoming a detective within the next year. He was even given more than a few undercover missions and assignments that most veteran cops thought twice about. Which leads us to the situation that he currently found himself in.

What started out as a simple undercover "steak-out" job in some seedy bar in downtown Kyoto quickly took a turn for the worst when one of the patrons recognized him from his time at U.A. despite his disguise. Which pretty much amounted to him dying his hair black. Of course he tried to play it off. But when the blonde haired drunkard decided to get a little too handsy, he made the fatal mistake of shoving the guy away from him. Which caused the man to power up strength quirk and try to attack him.

Out of instinct, Bakugou reacted by firing off an explosion at the man. Which caused a chain of events that lead to the entire building coming down on top of them. And to make matters even worse, someone with a fire manipulation quirk just so happened to be present as well. Completely negating the effect of his '_explosions'_.

"You got a lot of nerve coming in here and causing this mess, hero!" The hulking figure that was missing an eye taunted as he held Bakugou in his grip. By now, everyone else in the bar had managed to get away.

"I'm not a hero." The man groaned out as he tried to fight his way out of the hold.

"Whatever, it doesn't really matter to me. Either way, I'm going to squeeze the life outta ya' you spikey haired bastard."

Somehow, the man was able to angle his wrist just enough to fire off a blast that freed him from his captor. Bakugou was about to fly away from this location, but the guy with fire manipulation quirk had other plans. "You're got anywhere, bud!"

"Damn, you sure pack quite a punch." The muscle bound thug began laughing like a madman after grabbing Bakugou for the second time.

"Hey, Muscular!" The fire manipulator shouted. "Hurry up and kill that dude so we can get out of here. A hero's probably on the way."

"Yeah, yeah. Just give me a second so I can rip this guy in half."

"I'm sorry, but I don't I can let you do that!" A voice suddenly said from above.

The three men upturned their gazes to get a look at the newcomer. When Bakugou laid eyes on who it was, he would've felt a pit form in his stomach if wasn't already being crushed. Green hair, freckles, green and black hero suit. Yup, who else would be here.

The hero in question was hovering in the air above them as if he completely disregarded the laws of gravity. With sparks of blue electricity dancing around his body. His face was calm but you can see the focus in his eyes. But the worst part about all of this was the sense of relief that Bakugou was feeling right now.

"Oh, fuck. It's Kur-" The fire manipulator didn't even get a chance to finish his statement. In the blink of an eye, the green haired hero had somehow dropped from the sky and knocked the man out.

Deciding that he should give all his attention to who was no doubt the bigger threat, the man now identified as Muscular tossed Bakugou onto a pile of rubble before giving the hero a manic smile. "Today must be my lucky day!" He practically cheered. "Rumor has it that you're the strongest guy around!"

The man didn't bother responding before his electricity shifted to green and he dashed towards the blonde haired thug. "**Thirty Percent, Detroit Smash!"** He called out as he delivered a powerful gut punch. However, Muscular was able to take that hit with ease.

"Man, you sure do pack one hell of a punch!" He laughed at him.

'_That's usually enough knock out most big guys. Those muscle fibers around his body must he stronger than Tetsutetsu's steel.'_ He told himself before raising his power level to forty percent and attempting another smash. Only for the result to be the same. '_Great, looks like I'm gonna have to get serious about this one.'_

Without a second thought, Kurou dash over to Bakugou and lifted him off the ground. He recognized the man almost immediately despite the dye-job, but he didn't really have time to point it out. "Are you okay?" He asked sincerely, however the only response that he was given was a near blank stare from the man. Before Bakugou knew what to think, he was on the other side of the road and placed down next to a nearby cafe. "I'll be back as soon as I'm finished dealing with him."

Once again, Kurou was gone in the blink of an eye. Leaving Bakugou to gawk at the gust of wind that he left behind.

Back the remains of the bar, Kurou returned to where Muscular was standing. Obviously the guy was all brawn and no brains, otherwise he would've used that brief moment to try and escape. But Kurou was glad that he decided to make things easy for him. This guy and the other one were on Tsukauchi's "Most Wanted" list. And there was no way that he was about to let the man who killed the Water Hose duo get away from him.

"You're one tough cookie aren't you?"

"Save the jokes, let's get right to the good part!"

"As you wish…" Kurou gave a slight chuckle before his electricity shifted from green to red. "**One For All: Full Cowling, Fifty Percent - Assault Mode!"** He shouted as mass of dark energy surrounded both his arms and legs. He still hadn't quite cracked the code on how to form '_black whip'_ all over his body. But this would be more than sufficient.

Muscular didn't even get a chance to put his guard up before he was struck over ten times by the hero. Even though it happened so quickly, he was able to tell that each blow was significantly more powerful than the last.

"You should be proud of yourself." The green haired hero simply said as sparks of lime green electricity covered his hands. "You're the first non-Nomu to still retain consciousness after getting hit by eleven rounds of my '_combostar'_."

"Don't look down on me you motherfucker! It's gonna take a whole lot more than that to-" The blonde haired thug was cut off when an absolutely devastating force struck him square in the chest. Knocking him out before he even hit the ground. The ensuing gust of wind was enough to blow away some of the nearby debris. In truth, Kurou was hoping to resolve this without causing any more property damage. But he guessed that all he could do was keep things to a minimum.

With both villains now out of commission, the hero levitated into the air and made his way over to the victim. "Are you injured?"

"I'm fine." Bakugou shot back instantly. The last thing he needed right now was this guy pretending to be worried about him.

"That's good to hear."

"What are you doing here?" The blonde haired man asked in a slightly aggressive tone.

"Don't worry." The green haired hero held his hand up. "I'm only here on business. I'll be out of Kyoto in a couple of hours."

"That's not what I meant. What are you doing _here_?" The man further accentuated by pointing the remains of the bar.

"Stopping a villain attack. Actually, I just so happened to be passing by when I saw that building collapse."

"I had it handled."

"No you didn't." Kurou shot back with an unimpressed glare. "Not only were you going up against someone with a top tier enhancement quirk, another one of those criminals had a flame manipulation quirk. Simply put...you were outmatched."

The blonde haired man held his tongue. As much as he hated to admit it, the guy was right. If he hadn't shown up when he did, they wouldn't be having this conversation. Even though it had been years since he had seen the guy. Being saved by him was rather bitter pill to swallow.

"Anyways, you should take a load off and get any injuries checked out. The paramedics should be here in a few minutes."

"I'm fine."

"Whatever you sa-"

"Do you still hate me?" He blurted out. In truth, Bakugou had no idea why he even asked the question. Maybe it was the fact that he was finally face-to-face with the man. Or the emotions still lingering in the back of his head that even years of anger management couldn't quite shake. Whatever it was, he still needed an answer.

"I'm sorry?" The green haired man slightly tilted his head.

"Do...you...still...hate...me?"

Kurou paused for a moment while sorting out his answer. He knew the next time he ran into the blonde haired man this was going to come up. And if he was being honest, he'd much rather avoid this conversation altogether. However, now that he was here he couldn't just leave the scene of a battle. Especially not with those villains still around.

"To be honest, I don't. In fact, I stopped caring about you a long time ago." Kurou said in a cool and almost indifferent tone.

"And what the hell is that supposed to mean?"

Suddenly, the air around them seemed to shift as Kurou let out a deep sigh. "Y'know Bakugou, I should be thanking you. If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't be the man that I am today."

"What?"

"I doubt you even remember, but you telling me to kill myself was probably the single greatest piece of advice anyone has ever given me. Because you were right." He paused why taking in expression of absolute confusion plastered on his former classmate's face. "I like to think that "Deku" died that day and Izuku Midoriya was reborn. Even now, I wonder how my life would've turned out if I never did what you told me to."

Bakugou didn't even get a chance to respond before the sound of sirens at the other end of the road made themselves known. He turned around to see a few squad cars and ambulances rushing towards their location.

"Well will you look at that, the police have finally arrived." Kurou said with a relieved smile, thankful that this painful interaction was about to end.

It didn't take long for things to get cleaned up and for the villains to get put away. Both the undercover officer and pro hero gave their reports to the person in charge and the man promised to send over the case report to his office. Kurou thanked the man with a low bow before getting ready to head out. However, right before he could activate '_flight'_, he felt a hand grasp his right shoulder.

"Tell me one last thing. What the hell is up with your quirk? How did you end up with so many different powers?" Bakugou asked in a rough tone. Obviously expecting some kind of explanation for how someone who was once powerless gained such a wide skill set in only a few years.

"I guess I'm just a late bloomer." He smiled. "Well...have a good day, Officer Bakugou."

With that, sparks of blue electricity surrounded his form as he began levitating into the air. Kurou gave one final wave before jetting off into the distance. Leaving Bakugou with something to think about.

* * *

About five minutes later, Midoriya found himself walking through the entrance of the massive warehouse that was recently remodeled into the now famous "Hatsume Support Studio". There was something to be said about having a direct line to one of the best up and coming engineers in the business. But seeing as he spent most of his time in high school being a test dummy for the mad scientist known as Mei Hatsume, he felt he deserved a little bit of VIP treatment.

"Hello?!" Midoriya called out as he passed the double doors into the main workshop. "Is anyone in here?"

"Izuku-san!" A lone female voice shouted from behind one of the tables. The green haired hero turned around to see a young woman with tan skin, black hair, pointed ears and orange eyes.

"Oh hey Nira-chan, I didn't know you were going to be here today." He greeted her.

"Yeah! I have the week off from school and Mei-san is letting me stay here so I can get some more practice with my quirk and work on some new projects." The young woman smiled at her favorite hero.

"Well I'm glad to hear it."

"Yeah, I still have another year before I can apply to U.A.'s support course so I need to make sure my skills are razor sharp."

"Oh yeah...I know we only briefly talked about it the last time I was here. But I'd be glad to co-sign Mei's recommendation for you whenever she puts it in. It should help you out a bit."

"Oh you don't have to do that for little ol' me."

"Speaking of Mei, where is sh-"

***Boom!*** A medium sized explosion went off moments before a familiar body came careening towards the two of them. Midoriya wasted no time in catching the woman and gently setting her down on the ground. Somehow she didn't appear to have external injures.

'_Speak of the devil and she shall appear, I guess. I swear this woman has blast proof skin.'_

"Oh no!" Nira said in a half-worried tone.

"Mei! Are you okay?!"

"I'm fantastic!" The pink haired inventor shot up with a smile on her face as if she wasn't just blown across the workshop. "Izuku, you're right on time! All my new babies are ready for pickup!"

"Wait, you're just hear to pick up orders?" Nira asked the green haired man.

"Yeah."

"But don't you have people for that?"

"I do." He laughed off. "But I needed an excuse to get out of the office today and Itsuka's been waiting on these gauntlets for a week now."

"How's she liking her new stun-gloves?" Hatsume asked.

"From what she's told me, they work great."

"Glad to hear it!" She cheered before dropping a giant metal box on the table. Midoriya inspected its contents just to make sure that everything was there. Kendou's gauntlets, Jiro's new boots, Tokoyami's cloak, Kaminari's upgraded sharpshooters. Everything was present and accounted for.

"It's all here. Thanks Mei."

"I'll have your new suit ready in few days. It's just taking a while to weave the materials together properly."

"You don't have to rush." He told her.

In his opinion he didn't need another suit. But Hatsume had just bought some new type of 3-D printer and she needed an excuse to use it. His current outfit consisted of black boots, black cargo pants and green utility belt. The top was pretty much the same as his first ever hero costume design. Of course it was black, but it also had a silver star in the center of his chest along with green and white vertical lines along his midsection. As far as he was concerned, it was perfect. So he had no clue what the pink haired inventor was cooking up for him.

"So...has Mei-san always been the one to design your suits?" Nira inquired.

"Pretty much."

"He used to need a lot more of my babies back in school. But ever since he developed that regeneration part of his quirk, he barely needs half the stuff I used to make for him."

"That's so cool!"

"Yeah, I guess." He rubbed the back of his head before something on the bottom shelf caught his eyes. Curiosity got the better of him as he picked up what appeared to be a giant metallic disc. "Hey, what's this?"

"Oh, it's something I made for my school's science fair." The girl answered.

"It's super light, what's it made of?"

"It's a metal I bonded together with some materials from around the workshop. It's some pretty insane stuff, it completely absorbs vibrational energy."

"That's amazing!" He half-shouted with stars in his eyes. "What's it called?"

"Wakandium." The orange eyed teen proudly said. "I thought of it after watching some of Mei-san's old comic book movies."

"I bet this thing is amazing."

"The concept is cool and all, but it doesn't really obey the laws of physics. It practically bounces off of any surface that it hits."

"Still, something like this would be awesome for a hero to have. Or the police."

"Why don't you let Izuku take it with him while he's on duty to get some field data for it? That stuff has some real potential." Hatsume suddenly announced after taking a quick break from her welding. When she even started on that was a complete mystery to both Midoriya and Nira.

"Oh I could never ask Izuku-san to do something like that."

"Actually, I'd love to."

"Really?"

"Of course, if this stuff is as amazing as you say then I'd be happy to test it out. Maybe you could make one of these things for Itsuka."

"And having a top hero running around with something that you made would only bolster your chances of getting into U.A." Hatsume followed up.

"Well if that's the case, at least let me paint it for you. We can't have the great Kurou running around something so...bland."

"You don't have to go through all the trouble."

"I insist! I can even make it match your color scheme. You pretty much just wear green and black, right?"

Normally Midoriya wouldn't bother with the aesthetics of the equipment that he used. He much preferred to keep things simple instead of flashy. But looking at how the future inventor's face practically lit up at the idea, he just couldn't tell her no.

"Yeah." He finally relented.

"Alright! It should only take me a few minutes, we can even throw a little bid of red in there!"

And just like, Midoriya walked out of Hatsume's workshop with a brand new support item that would later become one of the most recognizable pieces of equipment in the world.

* * *

_~Kurou Tower (Formerly, Might Tower), Minato Ward~_

If you told Kendou that she would be working at one of, if not the biggest hero agency in all of Japan immediately after graduating from U.A. she would've looked at you like you were insane. But when your boyfriend is the head of said agency, it only makes sense.

Upon graduation and earning their professional hero licenses, Midoriya quite literally inherited the "All Might Hero Agency". As it turns out, Yagi yielded his rights of ownership to him in his will and the agency temporarily suspended all hero operations until he went pro.

Naturally, Midoriya was overjoyed once Sorahiko broke the news to him. At least he was before the three weeks of paperwork and legal meetings that followed before the official announcement. But once all that was over and done with, he quickly got into the swing of things. And his first order of business was extending the offer for all of his friends and former classmates to join them in this new chapter of their lives.

Kendou, Jiro, Tokage, Kaminari, Tetsutetsu, Tokoyami, Kuroiro, Shiozaki and Monoma all jumped at the offer to join the newly formed "Kurou Hero Agency". As expected, things were a bit shaky at first. But the rookie heroes managed to keep themselves afloat.

"Welcome back everyone!" Tomoko Shiretoko, formerly known as Ragdoll, greeted the returning group of heroes. "I take it the operation was a success."

Shortly after taking over the agency, the Wild Pussycats ended up disbanding. Once he got word of this, Midoriya wasted no time in enlisting the help of the former pro hero and offered her a position as the head of their administration department. Despite not being an active hero anymore, the green haired woman ended up being a wealth of knowledge on the finer details of the hero industry.

"Yes Shiretoko-san. Somehow everything went smoothly." Kendou answered.

"Glad to hear it."

"Now that Toga is out of the way and behind bars, all of Shigaraki's old crew is has officially been dealt with!" Tokage cheered while pumping her fist in the air.

"It's kind of hard to believe, isn't it?" Jiro gave out a slight chuckle.

"I'm sure that Midoriya-kun will be very proud of you guys when he comes back."

"Comes back?" Kendou arched and eyebrow. "Where did he go?"

"Oh he-"

As if on cue, the roof to the building opened up. The few employees on the floor and the young heroes quickly cleared the area with practiced ease like they had done so many times before. A brief moment passed before none other than Midoriya himself appeared in their vision and landed on the designated platform in the middle of the floor. Thankfully, they reinforced the landing zone because he still needed to work on that.

"Oh, hey guys." The green haired hero smiled at his friends as he set down a crate and what appeared to be some giant metal disc.

"Where did you fly off to, Wonderboy?"

"I went over to Kyoto to pick up those orders from Mei. I had to get out of the building for a little bit. And I ended up handling a few mishaps and small jobs along the way."

"Speaking of which." Shiretoko said as she handed the guy a medium sized stack of papers. "Tsukauchi-san faxed those over a few minutes ago. We need your signature on all these so we can close out all the cases you handled on the way there and back."

You could practically see the life drain from Midoriya's face at the mention of more paperwork. If there was one thing that he dreaded when it came to being a hero, it was definitely the admin part of the job. This wouldn't be the first time that he had a stack of cases waiting on him after returning from a patrol. And it more than likely wouldn't be the last.

Kendou gave the man a quick chuckle before placing a consoling hand on his shoulder. "See, this is why I've been telling you that you need to get an assistant."

"Or a stamp." Jiro followed up.

"No, it's fine. It's a part of the job after all."

"Dude, you do more jobs in a day than most of us do in a week. If Itsuka didn't force you to set aside an hour of your day for this stuff your office would be filled."

"Plus you _are_ in charge of running this place."

"I know…" Midoriya deflated even further. At this point he's lost count of how many times he had been on the receiving end of one of these lectures.

* * *

A little later that afternoon, the group of heroes made their way over to the main conference room. Their daily meetings never really lasted that long, but today was a special case.

After entering the room, Midoriya took his seat next to Kendou and wasted no time in greeting all that were present. Most everyone was there, minus Tokoyami and Kuroiro who usually work the night shift. Along with Monoma and Shiozaki who were currently in Kanagawa.

"Alright everyone, I know all of us are busy, so let's get right into it." He started before turning it over to Shiretoko.

"Thank you, Midoriya-kun. Before we get started, please remember that you have a meeting with our new Prime Minister next Monday. And he wanted me to tell you personally that he doesn't care if there's another sinking ship off the coast of Chiba, let someone else handle it."

"Tell him that I'm still really sorry for missing our last meeting."

"I'll get on it after we're done here." The green haired woman smiled. "Now, the first order of business is whether or not we'll be doing internships this year. Last year all of you deferred from taking part in them. But this year, U.A., Shiketsu and Seiai Academy have all put in requests for you to take on some of their students."

"I won't be able to do it for now." Tokage started. "I'm working a few different cases and I just don't have the time."

"Same for me." Tetsutetsu announced.

Jiro was the next one to speak up. "Denki and I are in the same boat."

"What about you guys?" Shiretoko directed her attention towards Midoriya and Kendou.

"I'm sorry, I'm just too busy right now." Midoriya apologized.

"I'm assuming that they're asking us now because the Sports Festival is next month?" Kendou inquired.

"Yes."

"Tell Nezu-san that I'll be able to do it. And that I'll be keeping a close eye on the tournament." The orange haired woman had no problem doing an internship. She didn't really have a lot on her plate right now seeing as most her cases for the month had been resolved. And it would be a good experience for her.

"No problemo!"

"So what else do we have going on?" Kaminari asked.

"Our next order of business has to do with the upcoming joint operation with Team Idaten and the Yaoyorozu Agency."

* * *

"Another fine day of work if I do say so myself." Tokage gave a wide grin while stretching her arms out.

"Yeah, I'm glad that we were able to finish everything up."

"Seriously."

"So…are we still doing girl's night tomorrow?" Jiro asked in a hopeful tone.

"Sorry Kyoka, but me and Izuku are watching Zenko this weekend. Actually, Sen's supposed to be over in a little while to drop him off."

"Again, seriously?" Tokage deadpanned. "I don't see why you and Wonderboy just don't have a kid of your own already. You two watch him all the time."

The green haired woman's comment was enough to make Kendou blush. "Well, Yuuto and his team are out on a mission right now and Sen's taking her class on a weekend training exercise. Plus…I don't think I'm ready to be a mom yet."

"Eh, I get." Tokage shrugged. "Just remember that you have to name your first child after me."

"And _why_ would I do that?"

"Because…if it wasn't for me, the two of you wouldn't have gotten together in the first place. It's the least you could do."

"Moving on…" Jiro interjected hoping to get this conversation back on track. "What about you, Setsuna?"

"Sorry dude, I can't make it. I have a date tomorrow night."

"With who?!" Kendou practically shouted. This was her first time hearing about any of this.

"You guys remember Yo Shindo? The guy from Ketsubutsu with the nice abs."

"Him, seriously?"

"Yeah, his girlfriend just dumped him. Which means that he's emotionally vulnerable and looking for someone to show him a good time."

"Well, I guess it'll just be me, Ibara and Rayet then."

"I promise I'll be there next time." Kendou apologized to the girl.

"No worries." Jiro waved off.

The three women finished changing in their offices and began making their way out of the building. Kendou gave Tokage and Jiro one last wave goodbye before heading over to Midoriya's office. Barely a minute later she found herself standing in front of the Kurou Gate (Yes, they literally renamed everything in the building) and placed her hand over the scanner.

Back when Yagi was running the agency, he was the only one who had access to this area. Now the only people who could enter besides Midoriya himself were Kendou, Jiro, Tokage, Tokoyami, Inko and Todoroki whenever he decided to drop in.

Once the giant metallic gate opened, Kendou was met with the sight of Midoriya sitting at his desk and typing away on his computer. The man had ditched his hero costume and was only wearing some sweatpants a tank-top which Kendou did not mind one bit. They had barely seen each other the entire day. And if it wasn't for the fact that they were still technically at work, she might've done something…unprofessional.

"You know everyone's already left for the day, right?" The orange haired woman joked as she made her approach.

"Oh, hey. I'm almost done making the patrol schedule for everyone. Just give me a few more minutes."

Knowing that the man was probably going to stay late again to get an early start on Monday, Kendou decide to cut him off by sitting in his lap and blocking his view of the screen.

"Last time I checked, that stuff wasn't due until next Tuesday." She said before exiting out of the spreadsheet and shutting the computer off. "And isn't that technically Shiretoko-san's job?"

"Well, she's been really busy lately and I thought I could help her out a bit."

All Kendou could do was smile and give him a loving peck on the lips. An action that Midoriya was more than happy to reciprocate. "I think it's real sweet of you to do that for her, but we need to go. Fumikage and Shihai are already here and are about to head out on their patrol."

"Okay, just let me-"

"Izuku." Her face shifted to a stern expression.

"Right." Midoriya gave a quick laugh. Without warning, the quirk inheritor picked her up and bridal style and carried her all the way over to the landing zone. The moment he stepped onto the platform, the roof opened up to reveal the beautiful star filled sky.

"I still can't believe that Toshinori-san had this installed."

"Yeah, it's definitely overkill. But it saves me the trouble having to walk all the way up here or take the elevator." He smiled at her. "So, do you wanna take the scenic route?"

"Maybe some other time, we don't really have a lot of time to goof off."

"Fine by me." Was all the man said before letting sparks of blue electricity surround his body and taking off.

* * *

_~Midoriya and Kendou's Apartment~_

Once they were back home, the two young heroes showered and quickly got ready for their guest. While Midoriya was hard at work preparing dinner, Kendou was busy childproofing everything that could even be considered a hazard. The orange haired woman couldn't help but laugh at how the two of them were already used to this sort of thing.

Just when they were about finished getting ready, the young couple heard a ring from their doorbell. "I got it!" Kendou called out before making her way to the door. "Hey guys."

"Nee-san!" A small boy with short black hair and orange eyes shouted at the sight of one of his favorite heroes.

"Hey, Zenko. How are you doing today?"

"Good! I saw you and Izu-nii on the news today. You guys were awesome!"

"Well thank you. Maybe you can join me and Izuku when you get older." She gave him a pat on the head.

"Yeah! As soon as my quirk comes in I'm gonna start training extra hard."

"I bet you will." She smiled at him once more before the blonde haired woman finally spoke up.

"Thanks for looking after him this weekend, Itsuka. Especially since this was kind of last minute. I know you and Izuku are pretty busy nowadays."

"It's no problem, really. We love looking after him."

"And I'm glad you guys do. You can just think of it as practice for when the two of you finally get married and start having kids of your own." Sen's teasing was enough to make Kendou blush. "Speaking of which, where is Izuku?"

"He's still in the kitchen."

"Awesome. Tell him I'm sorry that I couldn't say hello but I have to finish a few last minute things at the school."

"Don't sweat it." The orange haired woman waved off.

"Alright, well I guess I'll see you guys Sunday night. Zenko, don't cause them too much trouble alright?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Have a good weekend." The '_cyclone' _quirk user gave a quick wave before taking her leave.

With Sen gone, Kendou and Zenko headed up to the guest room to drop off his things before making their way back downstairs. Luckily for them, Midoriya was just about done with the food. The green haired hero was making katsudon and both of them couldn't wait to sink their teeth into the meal. All those cooking lessons that he got from Yuuto were really paying off.

Just when the two of them sat on the couch, Midoriya came flying out of the kitchen. The man was wearing an expression of obvious discomfort.

"Nii-san!"

"Hey Zenko, how are you?"

"Good!"

"I'm glad to hear it."

"Izuku, what's wrong?" She asked in a very concerned tone.

"I just remembered that I forgot to pick up eggs. I'm gonna head to the store real quick and go grab some." He replied while padding the floor over to the kitchen and slipping his shoes on. "I'll be back in like…ten minutes."

"What about the food?"

"Everything's pretty much done. We're just missing the eggs."

"Alright, well hurry up. We're starving."

"I'll be back in a flash." He shot her a smile and a thumbs up before disappearing out the door in a flash of green lightning.

"I wish I could have a quirk like that." Zenko said with stars still in his eyes.

Kendou simply smiled at the boy and patted him on the head. "I'm sure whatever quirk you get will be even more amazing than Izuku's."

All the black haired boy did was smile before excusing himself to go to the bathroom. With him gone, Kendou took the moment to kick her feet up on the table and relax her shoulders. It was times like these where she appreciated having a few days off. Sure she loved being a hero and helping people out, but there was nothing like having some time to relax and let your hair down.

The woman was brought out of her moment of peace when she heard a loud crashing sound coming from the other end of the apartment. Out of instinct she leaped up and got into a fighting stance before realizing that there was another person that she needed to worry about. '_Zenko.'_

"Nee-san!" The boy came sprinting down the hallway with a giant smile on his face. "My quirk! My quirk is here. I think I just activated my quirk!"

"Really?" Kendou tilted her head at him. She almost wanted to laugh at how perfect the timing was. Midoriya had a few theories on what kind of quirk the boy would develop. And the Heruzo's were probably going to kick themselves for not being here to see it themselves. "Well good for you!"

"Yeah, here let me show you!" The boy didn't even wait for a response before closing his eyes and clenching his fist. Suddenly the woman felt a chill go down her spine.

"Wait, Zenko hold o-" The last thing Kendou remembered before everything went dark was a strong gust of wind and a few crashing sounds from around the living room. Six minutes later, Midoriya returned to a completely trashed living room with Kendou lying unconscious on the floor. The strangest part about this entire scene though, was that somehow Zenko had grown a few centimeters and burst out of his clothing.

_Name: Zenko Heruzo_

_Age: 4_

_Quirk: Nebula_

_He can create a powerful whirlwind around his body that drains the stamina out of every living being that is within a certain radius._

* * *

**Author's Notes: So yeah, like I said in one of my earlier chapters the final interaction between Midoriya and Bakugou in this story was going to be short. That part of the chapter was pretty much just to show off a few of Midoriya's quirks. Yes, Bakugou failed to become a hero after all. But I think him becoming a police officer en route to becoming a detective is a solid career for him to have. At first I was just going to have him become a vigilante, but I think this was more appropriate. What do you guys think about it?**

**1\. Yes, Midoriya has gone full Captain America. To be honest, I had no long range plans for Nira in this story at all. I meant for her to be a one-off character. But a few people mentioned her in the comments/reviews, so there you go. Plus I'd like to think that I found a good way to tie her into the time skip. With the quirk I gave her, her creating the shield seemed very appropriate. (Shoutout to you Bucio).**

**2\. You guys thought I forgot about Ragdoll, didn't you? The original plan was to make her a guidance counselor at U.A., but I had to scrap that. Her working at the new agency seemed like a good job for her.**

**3\. This chapter was pretty much to see how everyone is doing as pro's. Next chapter is going to be more romance/slice-of-life oriented. And Midoriya and Kendou are going to have another (very important) date night. Also, there are only two chapters left. Next one is going to be regular length, but the last one is going to be really short. It's going to be more of a prologue than anything else.**

**4\. For those of you wondering about Midoriya's quirks. Here's a quick guide:**

**-Flight (Blue): Self explanatory.**

**-Super Regeneration (Orange): Self explanatory.**

**-Combostar (Lime Green): Every consecutive blow that Midoriya lands has double the strength of the previous one.**

**-Black Whip (Red)**

**-Danger Sense (Purple)**

**-OFA (Green)**

**-(Silver): TBA**

**P.S.: One of the quirks that Midoriya has is a bit of an easter egg for the quirk that he'll have in my next fic.**

**Like Always, thanks for reading and don't be afraid to leave a review.**


	51. Showtime

There were three things Kendou noticed when she finally woke up this fine summer morning. The first was that it was hot, like really hot. In fact, it was so hot that there was a thin film of sweat all over her body. The second was that something was missing when she stretched her limbs out across the bed. And that something was a certain wall of overpowered muscle that usually served as her nightly body pillow. It wasn't the first time that she had woken up to her boyfriend having already left for the day. But she was fairly certain that they both had the day off. The third was the smell of eggs and Columbian coffee practically assaulting her senses.

The orange haired heroine begrudgingly drug herself out of bed and made her way over to the kitchen to find none other than Midoriya slaving away over a hot stove. In fact, the stove wasn't the only thing that was hot. The green haired man was taunting her hormones by moving around in nothing but a pair of gym shorts that showed just the right amount of leg.

While watching him do his work, Kendou took a second to admire the absolute masterpiece of a body that he had spent years finely crafting. Most women would pay top dollar to get a peek at something that she got the pleasure of looking at every single day. Which wasn't really an exaggeration seeing as Midoriya was recently voted third on the list of: "Male heroes that I want to get me pregnant." Even from this angle, she could see the scars that still littered his body. Apparently, his super regeneration quirk only worked on injuries that he had suffered after activating it. Which, ever since he briefly lost an arm during his battle against Shigaraki, have been few and far between.

After getting her early morning hormones in check, Kendou made her approach and wrapped her arms around his waist. Taking more than a few moments to bask in the lovely aroma of apples and cinnamon. Tokage would probably have a field day with how she was acting right now. But she was a grown woman with a super hot shirtless boyfriend making her breakfast. This was practically every girl's morning fantasy.

"What's cookin' good lookin'?" She greeted him with a peck on the cheek.

"Wow, that was pretty cheesy. Even for you." He joked while handing her the freshly brewed cup of coffee.

"Well, when you put my office right next to Denki's and Kyoka's some of their shameless flirting is bound to rub off on me."

"Good point." He laughed.

"So...what are you making? It smells pretty good." She asked while looking over his shoulder to get a better view.

"Just some eggs, hash browns and bacon. I wanted to surprise you with breakfast in bed."

"Aren't you just the sweetest."

"Everything will be ready in a bit. Can you grab some plates?"

"No problem."

The two of them wasted no time in sitting down and digging into their breakfast before going over their plans for the day. Upon her first bite, Kendou unwittingly let out a satisfied moan at the rush of flavor that exploded in her mouth. She was now even more thankful for all those cooking lessons that he got from Yuuto and Inko. If he wasn't such a good hero, Midoriya would probably have decent career as a chef.

"So, you have an interview with Tsukauchi-san's sister today, right?" She asked in between bites.

"Yeah…." Midoriya let out a brief sigh. "I still don't know how she roped me into it."

"That woman has amazing powers of persuasion." Kendou joked. "You gonna be okay? It's like your first one ever, right?"

"It is. Tobita-san has been trying to get me to do one for months. He literally bounced off the floor in excitement when I finally broke the news to him."

"He's surprisingly a really good PR guy. Hard to believe he's a reformed villain. I was doubtful at first when Fumikage put in a good word for him, but he's been doing wonders at the agency ever since you brought him on."

As it turns out, the raven headed man had a run-in with the former criminal during their first year at U.A.. Naturally, Midoriya was a bit skeptical about bringing the guy on to work for their PR department. But Tokoyami vouched for him and said that he was determined to turn his life around. After a brief probation period, the dapper individual ended being an invaluable asset to the group.

"You got that right."

Breakfast continued on as usual before Kendou decided to bring up a topic that was surely going to be the talk of the town in the next few days. "So, the top ten rankings are coming out tomorrow."

"Oh yeah, that is right. You came in nineteenth this time around, didn't you?"

"I did." Kendou gave a short smile at her ranking. Neither of them really cared for rankings all that much, but it was still a pleasant feeling being so high up on the list. "Setsuna managed to come in at fourteen."

"Well, she is charismatic...in her own special way."

"I hear that Neito's going to be in the top ten too. But Mirio is guaranteed that number one spot. I still can't believe that you gave him some of your hair for one of his bracelets."

"Well...if I ever wind up brainwashed again, Neito's probably going to be the only one who can stop me. We did a field test last week and he's able to use all of my quirks to some extent. But he promised to keep it under lock and key in case of an emergency." Midoriya responded nonchalantly. "I'm just surprised that he convinced Aizawa-sensei to give him some of his hair. That's the real miracle."

"Hmm." The woman mumbled while taking another bite of her hashbrowns.

After finishing their food, showering, getting sidetracked, and showering again. The hero couple got ready for what was sure to be a long day of not working. For Kendou, that meant putting the finishing touches on her newest business venture. And for Midoriya, he was all set and ready to head out.

"Knock 'em dead, Wonderboy." Kendou said with a hug and a loving peck on the lips.

"I'll be back in a bit. Once I'm done, it'll just be you, me, some terrible movies and a massive bucket of popcorn."

"I look forward to it."

"I love you."

"I love you too."

With that, the green haired hero headed over to the open window in the living room. Because apparently the guy had also inherited Yagi's pension for forgetting to use an actual door every now and then.

"See ya' later!"

"Bye." She said with one final wave as Midoriya disappeared in gust of wind.

* * *

_~Later that afternoon~_

"Greetings folks! I'm Makoto Tsukauchi and we have a very special treat for you all today!" The black haired woman beamed while looking into the camera. "To my right, sitting down for his first ever live interview is none other than the pro hero, Kurou." She further accentuated by waving a hand towards him.

"Thank you for having me." Midoriya said politely while giving a quick wave to the camera.

"You're a hard man to pin down." She stated. "I had to call in a few favors just to get me this interview."

"Well, I'm sorry for causing you so much trouble."

"You can make it up to me by promising to get me another one later on down the road."

"I'll think about it, depending on how this one goes."

"I'll hold you to that." She gave him a quick chuckle before getting right down to business. "So Kurou, you've made a pretty big splash on the hero scene ever since your days as a student at U.A.. Your exploits are known all across the country. And ever since your big showdown with the leader of the now defunct "League of Villains", you've been the talk of the town."

"I just do what I can. To be honest, I'm not really all that."

"Oh, on the contrary my freckled friend. You've gained quite a bit of popularity ever since going pro. You've pretty much been unstoppable and you've handled every major battle and disaster that comes your way with ease. It wasn't too long ago that you single handedly saved a sinking cruise liner off the coast of Chiba. Some people out there have even started calling you the next 'Symbol of Peace'."

Midoriya couldn't help but blush at the praise he was getting from the woman. "Eh, I don't know about all that. Honestly, popularity has never been a big deal for me. Being a hero is what's important at the end of the day. I just want to do what I can to make sure that people out there are safe. Anybody that knows me will tell you that I try to avoid attention if I can help it."

"That still doesn't stop fans from comparing you to the late Toshinori Yagi. You're practically All Might 2.0."

"I can never live up to all that he's done. In my opinion, the 'Symbol of Peace' will always be Japan's number one hero." Midoriya repeated one if his may practiced rebuttals to this type of question.

"So is there any chance you'll become Japan's new symbol?" Tsukauchi leaned a bit closer.

"I know this is going to sound a bit crazy coming from me. But I think it's time we've moved on from that idea. The idea of a symbol of was good for that era, but there are so many great heroes out there that we don't need that kind of thing anymore. One man can't do it all, no matter how powerful he is. And every hero deserves to be an inspiration to others."

"That's quite an interesting sentiment. One that's sure to shake things up a bit."

"Well...a wise woman once told me that a building can't stand on one pillar."

"Care to enlighten us on who told you this?" The woman said while trying to get a bit more information out of him. The only thing Tsukauchi got however was slightly awkward laugh. "I thought so…. Moving on, recently your agency has stirred up a bit of news due to the relatively high number of quirkless employees that you've hired ever since taking over. Would you care to comment on that?"

Midoriya paused for a second and glanced over at Tobita who was waving a sign in the air that read: **"Don't fuck this one up! Stick to what we rehearsed!"**

"Well...as a few people are already aware, I grew up quirkless for a good portion of my life. Unfortunately, discrimination against those without a quirk is still a bit of a problem nowadays and a lot of good people have trouble finding work. I want to make sure that those who went through what I had to know that they can still find a purpose in life. I may be reaching for the stars a bit, but I'd like to think that I'm making a step in the right direction."

"Very admirable if I do say so myself." Tsukauchi nodded. "In fact, recently you've partnered up with the Uwabami agency on a couple of ventures concerning this topic. Not only were you featured on a couple of suicide prevention ads over the years. But word on the street is you guys, along with the pro hero Battle Fist, are spearheading a scholarship program for quirkless teens."

"It's still a work in progress, but we hope to get it off the ground pretty soon."

"Speaking of Battle Fist…." Midoriya could practically hear the borderline ravenous tone in the woman's voice. "You two have been together for quite a while. And you guys are partners at your agency. Would care to give a few hottakes for the tabloids out there?"

"Battle Fist is an extraordinary hero and an even more extraordinary woman. Honestly, she's the best partner a man could ask for. And she's way more put together than I can ever hope to be. If you don't believe me, ask anyone at the agency who has the more organized office."

"Are those wedding bells I hear the background?"

"Well…" A very noticeable blushed appeared on the pro hero's face.

Back at the agency, Tokage had already begun editing the footage of this interview to save for a later date.

"We'll put a pin in that for later." The woman quickly changed topics. "How about we move onto a topic that has experts across the world stumped?"

"And what is that?" Midoriya quirked an eyebrow at the woman.

"What exactly is your quirk?"

_'Wait, that wasn't on the list of questions.'_ Midoriya stumbled for a second while trying to think of an answer. To be honest, he really should've come up with a suitable explanation by now.

"W-well...you see…."

***Boom!*** The sound of an explosion in the background cut him off. Everyone present turned their attention towards a plume of smoke rising in the distance.

_'Saved by the bell.'_

"Sorry Tsukauchi-san, but duty calls." Midoriya quickly apologized to the woman before sparks of blue electricity erupted around his body and he took off like a jet engine.

Deciding that now was a good spot to end things, Tsukauchi gave one final goodbye to camera. But not before a promise to finish their interview at a later date.

* * *

Today could easily be considered one of the best days of Kendou's life. She wasn't sure if she wanted to call it the best, but it was definitely in the top five. Over a year of preparation, hard work and a lot of manpower finally paid off as her and Midoriya stood inside of the newly minted "Battle Fist Dojo".

Starting her own martial arts studio had never really been a dream of hers until after graduating U.A.. But after receiving some encouraging words from both Midoriya and Fanfei, she took the idea under heavy consideration. The couple briefly floated the possibility of putting the dojo inside of Kurou Tower. But Kendou wanted something that was all her own and away from work. Getting this place up and running sure wasn't easy work, but the orange haired heroine couldn't have been more proud of herself.

"We should work on putting some ads up around town and on the internet. You're bound to get a ton of students pretty soon." Midoirya said to her.

"I want to make sure that I get into the swing of things before that though. I don't think that I'm ready for more than a few students right now." She responded.

"Either way, I think it's really awesome that you have your own dojo now. Maybe I should sign up for a few lessons." He said with a quick laugh.

"I'm just glad that I was able to get this entire space for so cheap. Especially since it's in such a prime location."

"Well, you did save the landlord from a villain attack last year."

While the couple went to work sprucing the place up a bit, the front door opened. In walked an average looking brunette woman and a small boy with black hair styled in some sort of bowl cut.

"My goodness, it's really you!" The woman had to stop herself from letting out a gasp at the sight of the two heroes.

"Good afternoon, ma'am!" Kendou greeted the two. "How can we help you?"

"Forgive me, where are my manners?" The woman gave a polite bow before shaking Kendou's hand. "We live right down the road and we heard that your dojo would be opening up soon."

"We don't officially start classes until next week, but I'm more than happy to start taking early applicants." Kendou responded before looking down towards the young child. "It take it your son is looking to sign up?"

"Y-yes, this is my son Lee. I was hoping that you would take him on as one of your students. He's actually a big fan of yours."

"Is that so?" Kendou gave the boy a smile while kneeling down in front of him. "I'm Itsuka Kendou, it's nice to meet you!"

"H-hi." He said shyly while looking away from her. The boy practically oozed nervousness. Luckily, years of growing up near Amajiki gave Kendou more than enough experience on how to deal with that kind of thing.

"See, the thing is…" Now it was the mother's turn to adopt a nervous expression. "I've been looking to sign him up for classes for a while now, but every place that we've gone to so far has turned us away."

"Why is that?" Midoriya suddenly spoke up. His curiosity was now peaked on why any place would turn away a potential pupil.

"They've all said that it was because they were full...but I'm fairly certain that it's because my son is...w-well, he's quirkless."

The hero couple shared a brief look with one another and Midoirya could already feel a knot forming in his throat. Kendou however had to make a conscious effort to hide her annoyance after hearing such a thing. Any martial arts studio that would do something like that didn't deserve to have their doors open. She made a mental note to get the names of those places before the woman left.

"Is that true, Lee-kun?" She directed her gaze back towards the boy.

"Y-yes." He whispered in a dejected tone.

Deciding to set the record straight right then and there, Kendou placed her hand on the boy's shoulder and gave him a warm smile. "Tell you what. If there's one thing I've learned in my life, it's that quirks aren't everything. And any place that wouldn't take on a fine young man like yourself just wasn't worthy of your talent. We'll just have to show all those losers that they missed out on someone special!"

"So does that mean that you'll take him on?" The mother asked in a hopeful tone.

"Of course I will!"

"Really?!" Lee's face suddenly lit up. "Y-you really meant it?"

"I sure do."

"Thank you, Battle Fist!"

"I suggest you get use to calling me, Kendou-sensei." She shot back. "Don't think I'll go easy on you though. We're gonna have to hit the ground running if you're gonna compete in the local junior tournaments. It's gonna be a lot of work, but I have faith in you."

"She's a wonderful teacher. And she's definitely the right person for the job." Midoriya interjected. "She pretty much taught me everything that I know. Even now, I barely stand a chance when we do our sparring sessions."

"You really taught Kurou-san how to fight?" The words were almost too good to be true.

"You could say that he was my first ever student."

"That's so cool!"

Kendou proceeded to stand back up and look towards the boy's mother. "We can sort out all the fine details over some tea and coffee. In the meantime we can get Lee-kun fitted for a new gi and some wrist straps."

"Thank you very much, Kendou-san!" The woman gave another bow.

Once the mother and son finished up the necessary paperwork and took their leave, Kendou couldn't help but feel a bit of pride well up in her chest.

"Hey, Izuku."

"Hmm?" The man arched an eyebrow at her.

"I think we should get to work on those advertisements. And I know exactly what I want them to say." She told him with a determined look in her eyes.

"I'm way ahead of you."

* * *

Kendou didn't really know what to expect when Midoriya randomly decided to ask her out on a date earlier this morning. And the green haired man hadn't been very forthcoming with what they were going to do on their outing. But she decided to just roll with it and see what he had cooked up. The only thing he told her was to wear something nice and cancel whatever she had planned. Which wasn't much considering all she was going to do was head over Tokage's house and listen to the woman complain about how she would never find a boyfriend and/or girlfriend.

However, Kednou certainly wasn't prepared for her boyfriend to take her to "Yoshitake's" of all places. Which was one of if not the most high class restaurant in all of Tokyo. What was even more peculiar was how he managed to reserve to entire top floor for just the two of them. How and why he was able to pull that off was a complete mystery to her. But she wasn't about to complain about that little luxury anytime soon.

The entire date had been pretty normal for most of the night. The food was great, the atmosphere was perfect and they were under an absolutely beautiful star filled sky. However, Kendou could say with absolute certainty that she wasn't prepared for the situation that she currently found herself in. And that situation was Midoriya…

In front of her…

On one knee…

Holding out a small black box in his hands…

With an absolutely beautiful teal ring inside of it with a damn near perfect looking diamond smack dab in the middle of it…

It only took the woman a few seconds to get her wits about her before realizing that this moment was in fact happening. This had to be a dream. It was almost too perfect. There was absolutely no way that Izuku Midoriya, her hot, loveable, cinnamon roll of a boyfriend was proposing to her on the roof of a building under a beautiful star filled sky while giving her a nervous smile that somehow only he could pull off. The woman's eyes were locked on to the ring and she had a sneaking suspicion that her mother had something to do with this. Oh wait, Midoriya was saying something, she should probably be paying attention right now.

"...y-you don't have to give me an answer right away. But I just wanted to let you know that-"

"Yes!" The word left her mouth with a second thought. "Yes, yes, yes dammit!" She repeated while doing her best not to outright yell at him.

With that long awaited confirmation, Midoriya took a moment to slide the ring on her finger. The orange haired woman couldn't stop herself from gawking at the piece of jewelry now resting upon her hand. It was truly a work of art. She didn't even want to think about how much something like this would've cost.

"I-I had Mei make the r-ring for me." He nervously explained. "She used your gauntlets as the base design. It can even expand when you activate your quirk."

Oh god, he thought of everything. What the hell did she do to deserve someone so god damn amazing? Without missing a beat, the woman grabbed her new fiance by the face and pulled him in for what could only be described as the happiest kiss of her life. She had no idea how long the two of them held that position and frankly she didn't really care. Once they were done, the couple lovingly gazed into each other's eyes and Kendou had to stop herself from breaking down into a fit of tears right there on the spot.

"I can't wait to show this off at work on Monday!"

* * *

**Author's Notes: Not really a whole lot to say about this chapter. Like I said, most of it was going to be slice-of-life. Just a few quick updates on how our favorite couple is doing.**

**1\. For all those who are wondering, yes Gentle Criminal is also working at the agency. Like I said in a previous chapter, I left Tokoyami to deal with him during the Cultural Festival and I think he'd be a good fit as a PR guy. He is relatively adept at the "internet" thing and it seemed like a good fit for him.**

**2\. One more chapter left! Like I said in my last A/N, it will be pretty short. I'll let you guys take a wild guess on what that's going to entail. Also, I'll be showing you guys what Midoriya's final quirk is. Any guesses?**

**3\. If you haven't done so already, go check out my newest fic "Emerald Island". I'll probably be posting Cha[ter 3 of that story in the next 24 hours.**

**Like always, thanks for reading and don't be afraid to leave a review/comment.**


	52. Finale

_'Come on Izuku, you can do this! You have absolutely nothing to worry about. You're Kurou, the ultimate hero. You've dealt with way more stressful situations that this. You're faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, you can leap tall buildings in a single bound. Actually...I don't even need to leap now that I can fly. Well, flying could be considered leaping without gravity interfering with your descen-'_

"Izuku!" Jiro shouted for the fourth time.

"Huh?" The green haired man looked up at the woman.

"Can you stop quoting old era comic books and get down from there? You're leaving footprints on the ceiling."

"Oh shit!" Midoriya almost shouted once he realized that he was indeed standing on the ceiling. _'I didn't even realize that I activated my 'wall walking' quirk.'_ He said to himself before deactivating his power and landing on the floor in front of his friends.

Without a word, Jiro grabbed one of the nearby chairs and forced him to have a seat. In all the years that she's known the guy, it still amazed her how one of the most powerful people on the planet could quickly fold into a nervous wreck at the drop of a hat. "Calm down dude, you'll be fine. Just take a few deep breaths."

"Kyoka's right." Todoroki said from his spot in the corner of the room. "Everything's going to go smoothly."

"Indeed." Tokoyami nodded.

"I appreciate the vote of confidence guys. But, I-I'm just really nervous." Midoriya said to the group.

The purple haired woman took it upon herself to flatten a few wrinkles in his suit before giving him a not-so-subtle slap to the face.

"Ah, what the hell?!" The green haired man rubbed his now bruised cheek before small sparks of orange electricity began repairing the damage.

"Get a hold of yourself! Aren't you the same guy who kicked a Nomu into low orbit? Where the hell did all your confidence go?"

"Probably down the toilet with the rest of my breakfast." He said in a low tone as he turned away from Jiro. Only slightly reconsidering his choice of making her his "best woman". Now that he thought about it, they never really did sort out what her official title was going to be.

That comment was enough to get a hearty laugh from Kaminari as the yellow haired man took another bite of his rice ball that he may or may not have taken from the reception area.

In all honesty, Midoriya really shouldn't have been as nervous as he was. In the grand scheme of things, it wasn't really a big deal. Weddings happen all the time. He'd been to a few himself ever since graduating from U.A.. Granted, all those times he was merely a guest. Not the main focus. But it was perfectly normal to be a bit anxious about the whole thing.

Everything was all set and ready to go. The decorations were in place. The food was laid out. The reception hall looked absolutely amazing. All seventy-two guests were patiently waiting outside for him and his fiancée to show up. And his mother only passed out twice so far. Everything was going according to plan and he had absolutely nothing to worry about. The only thing that could ruin this moment was a random villain attack.

"We did make sure that-"

"Yes, the entire place is safe and we even got some local heroes to pull security." Jiro quickly cut him off.

Midoriya let out one final sigh before regaining what was left of his nerves and standing up. Once he finally got himself in order, he took a moment to look back at his friends. As he glanced around the room, he couldn't help but be thankful for how fortunate he was to have such a great group of people around him. It wasn't too long ago that the thought of even having friends was a near impossibility in his mind. Hell, him getting married to the amazing girl in the world was just as improbable to him.

With one last shake, he gave the group a wide smile and thanked them for all their support. "I really appreciate you guys for being here."

"Dude, save the sappy stuff for when you see Itsuka in her wedding gown." Tetsutetsu waved off with a quick chuckle.

"Speaking of attire…" Todoroki spoke up. "I don't think green is really my color." He said while looking down at his tie and pocket square. "I look like a Christmas ornament."

"Since when were you an expert on fashion?"

"Well, Mikoto was pretty adamant about the color pallet for the ceremony. It was either that or bright orange." Midoriya laughed while rubbing the back of his head.

"Look, we can sit here and talk about color coordination until we're blue in the face. But we need to get out there before Inko floods the place." Jiro announced.

With one final look in the mirror, Midoriya adjusted his suit and tie before making a beeline for the door. "Alright, let's do this!"

* * *

On the other side of the building, Kendou and her group were putting the finishing touches on their own preparations.

"I have to hand it to you, Setsuna. At first I wasn't a fan of the whole teal and orange kimono idea. But this thing looks absolutely amazing." Kendou told the green haired woman while she checked herself out in the mirror for the seventh time. Although her outfit was a bit more extravagant than what she would've preferred, she couldn't deny it's beauty. If it was up to her, she would've picked out something more simple. But she was more than happy with the floral design and how comfortable it felt.

"Well, it was either that or we'd all be wearing emerald green. But either way, you look great!" Tokage smiled with only the slightest hint of smugness in her voice.

"I agree, you look wonderful." Yaoyorozu added.

"It doesn't really matter though, seeing as Wonderboy's going to be ripping it off of yo-"

"Stop!" Komori put a hand over the woman's mouth before she could finish her lewd comment.

As the women spent the next few minutes standing around talking about the impending ceremony, a knock on the door caught their attention. A second passed before Yamanaka walked into the room holding an absolutely stunning bouquet of teal and orange flowers in her hands. The blonde haired woman was testing out one of Hatsume's new walkers that she was going to be unveiling at the I-Expo later that year.

"Sorry I'm late, my mom wanted to make sure that the arrangement was absolutely perfect." The woman apologized.

"It's no trouble at all." Kendou told her as she was handed to the bouquet. Taking a moment to marvel at its beauty.

Barely a minute later, Mikoto made her way into the room and had to stop herself from breaking down into tears at the sight of her daughter. Thankfully, the woman's kimono could expand with her quirk or else she would've bursted out of it by now. "Look at my beautiful baby!" She said as she threw her arms around Kendou.

"Group hug!" Tokage cheered before joining in on the embrace. Causing Yaoyorozu, Yamanaka, Komori, Kodai and Yanagi to do the same.

"Alright guys, can we save the tears until after the ceremony?" Kendou laughed while secretly hoping that her crew weren't getting tears on her outfit. "Is everything ready to go, Mom?"

"Yes." The woman sniffled. "We're good to go. We need to hurry, though. Ibara-chan is about to lose her mind. The girl's been reciting her lines non-stop for the last fifteen minutes."

"Well, she did say that she wasn't going to allow anyone else to preside over the ceremony. So of course she's putting her all into it." The orange haired woman joked.

With one final look in the mirror and yet another group hug, the gang of women began making their way into the hall. Kendou would be lying if she said that she wasn't nervous as all hell about the entire thing. But the fact that she was about to get married to the most amazing guy in the world was a good bit of reassurance.

Years ago, if you told her that the same quiet, anti-social and reclusive teen that she met at U.A. would one day be her husband, she would've looked at you like you were insane. Now, she really couldn't imagine her life without the guy. They had been through more than their fair share of nonsense together, but she was happy with how things turned out. This may have been a monumental moment in her life, but there were surely many more to come. And she was more than ready to face those head-on with the man that she loved.

"Alright ladies, let's do this!"

* * *

"Dude I'm telling you, our captain has a pet pig that has the exact same quirk as you! It's the craziest shit I've ever seen in my life!" A slightly drunk Yuuto laughed while throwing his arm over Amajiki's shoulder.

"Is he always like this when he drinks?" The pointy eared man looked to Sen.

"Yeah…" The blonde haired woman smiled while taking a sip of her own drink.

As expected, the wedding ceremony went off without a hitch. And the entire party was now having a good time in the reception hall. For the most part, things didn't get too out of hand. Izuku and most of the guys were crowded around one of the tables while Tetsutetsu and Togata were having an arm wrestling match. And the women were admiring Itsuka's new teal wedding band. Much like her engagement ring, this too was a specially made item courtesy of Hatsume.

The party raged on well into the night before everyone decided to let the man and woman of the hour take their leave.

"You ready to go?" Izuku smiled at Itsuka as he took her hand and interlocked their fingers.

"Definitely!" The orange haired woman smiled back.

The newlywed couple shared a quick peck on the lips before Itsuka leapt into her husband's arms and threw her hands around his neck. They two started into each other's eyes for a moment and the world around them seemed to disappear. Both of them wondering how they managed to get so lucky.

"We'll see you guys in a week." The green haired man turned around to the rest of the group while giving them a thumbs up before levitating into the air.

"Try not to burn the agency down while we're gone." Itsuka followed up.

"Enjoy the honeymoon!" Tokage shouted from the bar.

"Where are you guys going anyway?" Jiro asked.

Itsuka and Izuku shared a quick glance with one another before flashing everyone a set of wide grins. "It's a secret." They both said in unison.

Before the others could comment, the quirk inheritor took off into the night sky while giving one final wave.

"So, what time does our flight leave?" Itsuka inquired.

"Three hours. Just enough time to grab our bags and head over to the airport." The man told her.

"I can't wait to see the looks on everyone's faces when we send them pictures of the two of us in New York."

"Oh yeah, they're gonna flip."

"We just have to make sure that we get a couple from the top of the Empire State building. It's on my bucket list."

"I'm just looking forward to seeing the statue of liberty."

Kendou decided not to respond. Instead, she simply snuggled up closer into the man's arms and undid her bun to let the wind flow through her orange hair. Giving herself a moment to take in the city lights below them and admire the view. She then took a second to look up her at her new husband and couldn't help but plant a loving peck on his lips.

"I love you, Izuku Midoriya." She smiled at him warmly.

"I love you too, Itsuka Midoriya." He returned the gesture with his own signature million-watt smile.

And with that, the couple disappeared over the horizon and into the star filled sky. Ready to begin the newest chapter of their story. They had no clue what was instore for the rest of their lives. But whatever it may be, as long as they had each other they were more than happy to face whatever the future had planned for them.

**~"Blitzkrieg Bop" by Ramones plays in the background.~**

* * *

**Author's Notes: Well, there you have it folks. This dumpster fire of a fic has officially come to an end! Sorry for taking so long, but I ended up deleting part of this by accident and had to rewrite it. I feel like I did a pretty good overall wrap up with the last couple of chapters. This one was just the "send off".**

**1\. There were a few things that I wish I did differently with this story, but I'm still happy with how it turned out. There were also a few ideas that I had when creating the first outline of this that I ended up scrapping (Originally, Midoriya was supposed to have his own version of the "Muscle Form". But thankfully my buddy talked me out of it. Also, Spectrum was supposed to play a much bigger role but I had a hard time plugging him into the Overhaul Arc)**

**2\. Feel free to give me your honest opinions on this fic. What did you like? What did you not like? What was your favorite moment? What was your least favorite? Stuff like that. Any and all criticism will be accepted, and I'll try not to have my feelings hurt. I'll just use it as motivation in my newest fic.**

**3\. I like to give credit where credit is due. This fic was mostly inspired by other works such as: "Young Midoriya" by mattybeach, "Fist to Fist, Heart to Heart" by Yojimbra, "Training Partners" by Onbet, "106 Attempts to get your Deku" by Elihart123, and a few others. If you guys get the chance, you should go check those out.**

**4\. Someone suggested this to me, but I'm considering doing a "Q&A Chapter" sometime next week for any questions that you guys still have. So, if there is still something that you wanted to know go ahead and ask.**

**Thank you all for reading and check out my newest fic "Emerald Island" if you haven't done so already!**


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